Heavy hitters offer to new media rev model
Jinfo Blog

16th April 2009

By Nancy Davis Kho

Item

Three big media players have gotten together to launch tools that will enable publishers to charge for internet access to content, according to an April 14 New York Times story (http://digbig.com/4yppf). The company, Journalism Online LLC, has founders and board members with credentials to spare: "The founders and investors are Steven Brill, creator of Court TV and American Lawyer magazine, among other ventures; L. Gordon Crovitz, a former publisher of The Wall Street Journal, one of the few newspapers to charge online; and Leo Hindery Jr., who has headed communications companies like Tele-Communications Inc., Global Crossing and the YES Network, and now runs InterMedia Partners, a private equity firm that specializes in media." The plan is for the product, due in Fall 2009, to offer both by the drink and all-you-can-eat pricing for multiple newspapers. The idea is that a reader browsing a website for a newspaper or magazine would reach a certain point - to be determined individually by each publisher - and then see a page asking for payment. Alternatively, by starting at Journalism Online's yet to be launched web site, they can purchase subscription for multiple publishers; Brill mentions US$15 per month as a possible subscription price. The big selling point to the consumer is ease of use - one place to input credit information for access to content from multiple publishers. For the publishers, the solution is meant to capture the revenue stream from online readers that has so far largely eluded them. Great concept and sounds logical enough. But the problem is, Journalism Online is offering a solution to a problem that needed solving ten years ago. In the absence of a tool like this - or deliberately and willingly at the time - publishers gave lots of information away for free and conditioned their audience to expect it. And the rise of citizen journalism in the meantime only exacerbates the problem. It's worth noting that no major newspaper has publicly signed on for the project, though Brill says that many are interested. Unless they all jump into the "pay to play" pool together, it seems doubtful that this belated effort, no matter how well designed and intentioned, will fall short of the mark.

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