Report: Murdoch Planning News Corp-Wide Paid Content Program
How long can the news industry go on making only minimal profits from its supposed digital white knight? A month after saying online readers’ dependence on free content is “going to have to change somehow”, News Corp.‘s Rupert Murdoch has now “set up a global team, based in New York, London, and Sydney, to create a system for charging for online content in an environment where consumers have come to expect to get it for free”, The Daily Beast reports.
There’s no on-the-record source but, Newsweek‘s former London bureau chief Stryker McGuire writes, a “knowledgeable source” says the team is “looking at hardware” to deliver pay-for content, suggesting e-readers may be it. And Murdoch is personally overseeing the effort, with help from Dow Jones (NYSE: NWS) CEO Les Hinton and son James, News’ EMEA head.
As evidenced by Murdoch’s refusal to take WSJ.com free, it is possible to charge for B2B and business news, but any effort to put Pandora back in her box by asking consumers to pay for general news may need to be undertaken together with industry partners - so the Beast says News’ new digital CEO Jonathan Miller is also speaking with “other content providers” about the project. Some digital payback can’t come soon enough—in earnings filed yesterday, News Corp.‘s UK newspaper wing News Group said losses for the year to June 29, 2008, widened from £10.7 million ($16 million) to £18.5 million ($27.9 million) on “significant” online investment and higher newsprint costs—but the flagship Times of London’s losses worsened 17 percent to £51.3 million ($77 million), or nearly a million pounds a week. More at paidContent:UK.
With Miller aboard, News Corp first needs to join its own disparate efforts together, an effort that actually started before he was hired. In the UK, Times Online, whose US ads are sold by WSJ.com, started cross-syndicating web video with the Sky News channel and doing original productions last year. The sites for FoxNews.com and New York Post, Sky News and Times Online also started sharing cross-links.Former Fox News exec John Moody is also now building a shared news hub across News Corp.
Staci adds: News Corp. PR quickly tried to dial back Murdoch’s comment last month about investing in a four-color device, insisting that the idea was “very exploratory.” But it’s clearly part of the planning right now—and one of the many concepts Miller has to pull together between News Corp. companies. We’ll likely have more about this later today when Murdoch takes questions from analysts and press during News Corp.‘s earnings call.
(Photo: World Economic Forum, some rights reserved)
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@robertandrews
May 6, 2009 7:53 AM ET
Posted In: Companies, News Corp.
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