To pay or not to pay?! April 22, 2010 No Comments
Ding, ding, ding! The first round’s out and it looks like Gordon Brown’s going to win!
No… don’t worry James, I’ve not got my election head on and I’m not about to launch into some political tirade! I’m actually talking about online content! Yes, our Prime Minister is just the latest high profile figure to launch into the “to pay or not to pay?” debate. And as you’ve probably guessed, Mr Murdoch is definitely not in Mr Brown’s good books!
He’s spoken out this week about Rupert Murdoch’s plans to introduce paywalls to access The Times and The Sunday Times online. Talking to the Radio Times, Mr Brown said the idea was infeasible because internet users were already used to accessing content for free. Read the rest of this entry »
More players jump into online content battle January 31, 2010 No Comments
Not content with Rupert Murdoch kicking up a fuss about online content, The Mirror Group have now jumped into the battle too.
Back in November, Murdoch famously criticised Google for allowing readers to read part of the articles on newspaper websites without charging. It threatened to block the search engine but mysteriously all seems to have now gone quiet on the subject…! Then a few weeks ago, out of nowhere, Murdoch decided to block the news aggregate site NewsNow from trawling it’s website. The corporation objects to the fact that the news site charges subsciption fees for clients to access newspaper articles. Read the rest of this entry »
And the free online content battle continues…(Part 1) November 21, 2009 1 Comment
Earlier this year, Rupert Murdoch announced plans to start charging for online content.
Newspapers belonging to NewsCorp, like The Times and The Sun, will start to charge for online content in the coming months. Mr Murdoch is standing by this decision despite the results out from a survey this week that shows only 1 in 3 Brits are willing to spend money for online content. OK Mr Murdoch, that might be a third of the country but don’t get too excited yet! Those willing to pay for content are only willing to spend a micro-amount; the majority (35%) said they would be willing to pay only 2 pence per article! So would it really be worth it? Read the rest of this entry »
