Rupert to Internet: It’s War!

[kentuck]

http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2009/11/michael-wolff-200911

<snip>
Rupert Murdoch is going to battle against the Internet, bent on making readers actually pay for online newspaper journalism–beginning with his London Sunday Times. History suggests he won’t back down; the experts suggest he’s crazy. Is he also ignoring his industry’s biggest problem?
By Michael Wolff
November 2009

War is Rupert Murdoch’s natural state. When he launched the Fox Broadcasting Company, in October 1986, he went to war against the hegemony of CBS, ABC, and NBC. With Fox News he crossed swords with CNN’s Ted Turner. At Sky, his satellite-TV system in the U.K., he went up against the BBC. He’s battled China, the F.C.C., the print unions in Great Britain, and, recently, most of the journalism community in his takeover of The Wall Street Journal. He relishes conflict and doesn’t back down—one reason why he’s won so many of his fights and so profoundly changed the nature of his industry.

Now he’s going to war with the Internet.

<snip>
Traditional media managers, who once rushed into the Internet hoping to establish new businesses as well as their new-media bona fides, have all now been chastened by its economic realities and want to take back their free content. “Obviously we will all be closely following Rupert’s efforts in this direction,” said John Huey, Time Inc.’s editor in chief, when I contacted him—a curious throwing up of the hands from Time Warner, the world’s largest magazine publisher and the world’s largest media company, which has tried more strategies on the Internet than any other traditional media company.

Almost all Internet professionals, on the other hand, think that charging for general-interest news online is fanciful—“Rubbish … bonkers … a crock … a form of madness,” in the description of Emily Bell, who has long run the Guardian newspaper’s Web site, one of the industry’s most successful—and, in fact, it has been tried before and failed. “It’s Groundhog Day,” adds Bell. The New York Times tried to levy a subscription charge for its columnists but reversed course and declared itself free again. Even Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal, the model of subscription content online, has made more and more of its site free.

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[Taverner]

1. I worry because he is the kind that will bully everyone into submission by litigation

[spanone]

2. i look forward to his efforts to charge the knuckle-draggers for his fake news

[Richard D]

3. Great idea!

Start off with charging 60 dollars a month for Faux news. Make it 100.00. Maybe more. Might get some fat-arsed jerks out of their mom's basements.

[PDJane]

4. Rupert's "news" is part of the problem...........

I wouldn't pay to read his swill either.

[Oregone]

5. Circulation goes down, online ad revenue goes down...etc

Thats why, well, you don't charge everyone $5 bucks for a Sunday paper. You are supposed to make your money off the advertisers and do what you must, price wise, to increase circulation.

[sendero]

6. It takes a lot of nerve....

... to think you can make people pay for propaganda.

Murdoch's going senile, this has been tried and tried and tried and it is not going to work.

[ohheckyeah]

7. Murdoch would have to pay me to read

his news.

[ThePantaloon.com]

9. I still wouldn't read it even if he paid

[ohheckyeah]

10. He'd have to pay a LOT. n/t

[Downtown Hound]

8. Fine.

The less his bullshit reaches the masses, the better.

[Zix]

11. Go ahead and shoot yourself in the foot, Rupert. You're in for a nasty surprise.

[Vinnie From Indy]

12. Go for it Rupert!

I would like nothing better than to see the decline of Murdoch's empire rapidly accelerate.

This is a huge mistake! It marks Murdoch as having a fundamental misunderstanding of the Internet. The fact is that in markets such as TV/radio/satellite/newspapers etc. Murdoch has a distinct advantage in money, influence and market share. These advantages are all neutralized when applied to the Internet. Rupert underestimates the sheer volume of information that is cranked out each day on the 'Net by folks that have no more investment in their 'Net presence than a laptop, camera and WiFi connection. In short, Rupert has too many competitors on the Internet. Add to that the dishonest quality of his products and he is on a long road to oblivion. Nothing could make me happier!

[Joe the Liberal]

13. What is the logic behind this?....

So he basically want's to start charging people to read his propaganda, I say let him. People will simply go to some other site that provides the news for free. The internet is a big place that isn't controlled by scum like Murdoch unlike cable.