Foley: “We will witness the collective suicide of scores of news organizations”

I missed this back in August, but it’s worth a look even now. Stephen Foley writes in The Independent that news­pa­pers that fol­low Rupert Murdoch’s lead and try to charge for their con­tent may be sign­ing a col­lec­tive sui­cide pact.

It’s des­per­ate stuff. It won’t work, and if news­pa­per exec­u­tives on both sides of the Atlantic fol­low Mr Murdoch’s appar­ent lead, I pre­dict we will wit­ness the col­lec­tive sui­cide of scores of news organ­i­sa­tions in the US and elsewhere.

The prob­lem, he says, is that news­pa­pers don’t have con­tent that peo­ple want to pay for. Most of what you see on major news sites is avail­able else­where — and for free. “Many news­pa­pers that intro­duce online fees with­out reform­ing what they do could end up look­ing lit­tle more than high-priced aggre­ga­tors, a kind of Huffington Post that isn’t free,” he writes.

The les­son: give read­ers a rea­son to want what you pro­duce and they might con­sider pay­ing for it. Charge a fee before you’ve got the high-quality con­tent and you’ll lose them.

Image from World Economic Forum