Newsday prepares to commit online suicide
October 23, 2009 by NJ News
Filed under Latest Headlines
New York, NY – Long Island’s Newsday newspaper is prepared to be the first newspaper in the region to restrict online access to subscribers only, charging readers $5 per week to read the newspaper online. This strategy is not a new concept in the industry as newspaper companies worldwide have always considered this option, but most realize the effects it will on their online business.
In just 5 days, the site will be closed to ‘freeloaders’ getting their news for free. At least, that is one of the theories that circulate within print media board rooms. The problem is the decline of newspapers in America and the hostile takeover of the news by the internet. Many news agencies have openly embraced this new media delivery system by adjusting accordingly, but in the word of print media, daily subscriptions drives the business and the old guard can’t seem to break that mold no matter how hard they try.
Faced with declining advertisement revenues, the paper undoubtedly is trying to right their finances by bolstering subscriptions which they hope in turn will pump up advertising revenues. On paper, this theory works, but in reality, advertisers know what’s going on. They are spending their advertising budgets elsewhere.
Newspaper advertising has been on the decline for a decade and no amount of susbscription laundering is going to revert the process. As somebody with over 15 years in the newspaper and new media industry, here’s what is going to happen.
Newsday’s website will be blackedout in 5 days to non-subscribers. Very few people will pay to view news they can get for free elsewhere on the internet and an proportionately small amount of people on Long Island who do not get the paper will get a subscription. They don’t subscribe now because they don’t like newspapers, be it for the environmental impact they have, recycling issues or the clutter they create in your house.
After a few weeks or months of realizing this move is full of fail, Newsday will slowly open up excerpts to the public, then followed by a return to free and open news. By that time, most online followers will have moved on to their competition and likely won’t return. It will also open up the opportunity for local competitors to seize the day and take over Newsday’s online market share.
In any event, it will be a black eye for Newsday. They should have done their research before making this decision. It has never worked for any newspaper. Just ask the New York Times.
The NY Times tried this 15 years ago and online readership fell to near zero. They reversed the policy in less than 3 months.
I found the whole thing funny when I first saw this. Back when the Times did it, I was actually heavily involved in the online newspaper portion of the Asbury Park Press. Many of the Gannett fellows who were selected to run the paper after it’s purchase from the Plangere’s family wanted to follow suit and make the press available to subscribers only and charge something like $14.95 per month or bundle it with internet access and be like a private AOL type dial up system (remember dialup was the standard method of connectivity back then), and we just laughed at them. Luckily they never went ahead with it, but it’s a horrible business plan that will sink them faster.
The thought process is this: We are losing advertisers because we are losing circulation numbers. If we force these online theives into buying subscriptions, we will have better numbers to present to potential advertisers.
What they don’t realize is how the dynamic of the internet works and how they should be working with this powerful tool to boost their business instead of fighting it. Just another reason why print based news media is dying. The APP is rather progressive these days if you ask me these days with comments/forums/blogs/video etc.
Just another FAIL for the industry which is on life support.
newsday isn’t the only paper to have committed online suicide this week. I think you can figure out the other one.. but I won’t say.. like I said in the newsday article… ” It will also open up the opportunity for local competitors to seize the day and take over Newsday’s online market share”