Mixed messages on free info
Jinfo Blog

4th October 2009

By Tim Buckley Owen

Item

Yet more evidence that information managers are relying on free sources to get them through the recession comes from a new poll of nearly 450 infopros carried out by FreePint (free to VIP subscribers or available to purchase at http://web.vivavip.com/go/shop/report/1489). In the wake of 2009’s ‘dire economic environment’, more than a third of respondents reported staff reductions, and over half reported budget cuts – some of them ‘significant’. On the positive side, respondents are finding new opportunities in the crisis – focusing more on measuring the value of both their content and their services, pursuing cross-training opportunities to make up for knowledge gaps and helping end-users to become more self-sufficient. But of all the strategies for coping with reduced budgets, making do with free resources remains at the top of the heap (http://web.freepint.com/go/about/press/4249). It’s not the first time recently that FreePint has reported how heavily infopros are relying on free stuff at the moment. An earlier survey for the North American information provider J J Keller once again revealed that exploiting free material was by far the most important tactic for tiding beleaguered information managers over (http://www.vivavip.com/go/e20979). Of course, this may only be a short term solution; as we’ve been hearing ad nauseam of late, free news is under threat from publishers’ inability to create a viable business model out of advertising-funded services. What’s more, respected information providers like Dow Jones have been pulling no punches in warning of the potential risks of relying on free information (http://www.vivavip.com/go/e24127). Yet rumours of the death of free – and, what’s more important, reliable free – information may still be exaggerated. Reporting recently on a Harris Interactive poll showing how reluctant readers were to pay for news, Penny Crossland commented that, if charging became widespread as a means of boosting print circulation, net savvy readers would soon find alternative free sources, to the detriment of traditional ones (http://www.vivavip.com/go/e24652). To complicate matters further, one long established newspaper has just bucked the trend by announcing that it is going to stop charging for its print version altogether. The announcement comes not from a light freesheet relying on the web and agency copy, but from the content-rich London Evening Standard, complete with its city editor and business team (http://digbig.com/5bajws). No question that plenty of expert assessment will still have to be paid for; 17% of respondents to the new VIP survey actually reported budget increases, with the organisations that spent more than $500,000 a year on content least likely to report cuts. But, as LiveWire has commented previously (http://www.vivavip.com/go/e22943), when it comes to raw news, infopros can probably work on the principle that someone, somewhere, really wants you to know it.

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