Slashdot Mirror
The Rise Of Reg-Only Media
cswiii writes "Following up his article a few weeks ago about the NY Times' loss of prominence across the online medium (previously discussed on /.), Adam Penenberg returns with a much wider assault on the
lurch towards reg-only content by Big Media as a whole. I just wonder what Margaret Thatcher would think about purportedly living in Beverly Hills..."
Is a very small price to pay for free content. Besides, with portals like Google news, if there is a story you are interested in, there is a good chance that several other media outlets have written a similar article.
I just plug the desired URL into google and follow the link. That never fails, bugmenot seldom works.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Using Bug Me Not will likely help a lot. When the sites realize that they can't control logins and they have dozends, hundreds or even thousands logged in with the SAME info, they'll know it's not helping them in any way. What'll happen next remains to be seen, but I doubt they'll pull content, it's too ingrained into people's expectations anymore.
Over 30 posts and no one has pimped BugMeNot yet?
For the lazy: BugMeNot Extension for Mozilla based browsers.
BugMeNot is not nearly as good without it.
It's truly a gem. Check it out...
http://bugmenot.com
Don't slashdot them. I mean...oh...hmm...
Use BugMeNot
There's even a FireFox extension that will look up a login for you.
In the case of the New York Times, they have to pay for salary and benefits, phone bills, plane tickets, etc. etc. etc. so their reporters can gather the information and put it in publishable form. If they do not have some source of income (whether it be advertising, subscriptions, or the elusive 'micropayments'), they cannot continue publishing.
>;k
Do they ask for the same info when you walk up to a news stand and buy a newspaper? No! Why? Because it would be a pain in the a$$ and no one would want to take the time to fill out the info, they'd be concerned about telemarket & junk mail, and privacy.
My point is, they don't make you waste 5 minutes to give them this info to buy a regular paper, why make us do it online? We just want fast news. The regular, non targeted ads (just like in the print edition), will do just fine.
Thank you.
© 2004 The SCO Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Then we get sick of that and go else where for the same news.
Some of us might use bugmenot, which can even be integrated into your browser, to get past this crap. But for the most part I think people just look elsewhere.
I still resent having to register for newspaper sites. I don't need to register to pick one up at the newsstand, why should I for the site?
Its a computer thing. Don't know why either. For example, I just bought some tickets from Ticketmaster (thats another topic for another day), and I had 2 choices to get the tickets in the 8 or so that they were on sale.
1) call on a telephone thingy
or
2) go to the website
If I were able to get through to the website (I know noone that did), I would have had to "create an account" and think of a username and password (I create a new one, every time) and then recieve their spam, plus whatever spam that comes from them selling my email address.
But if I use the old school technology, aka telephone, I just give them the pertinant information CC#, address, name, etc. And I don't even have to create an account or a password or anything.
Its a fad. Don't some people here work with websites? I mean, do you ever ask your PHB why users have to create accounts to buy something over the computer when they don't over any other form of commerce?
Another thing webmasters. Please stop opening links in new windows. The user can do that for themselves.
They're run by the government of Qatar.
The result is the advertisers run the companies.
And when those companies are the media you have a big problem on your hands: how do you get accurate reports on issues that would have negative effects of companies from the media when the media relies on the adverts from those very companies to stay alive?
You can't.
Medialens ended up discussing this with one of the Guardian editors in April:
"Ever worked on a magazine launch? The first and only real questions are: who will advertise with in product / Will it be read by people whom advertisers want to reach?" -- Nick Taylor, Guardian Spark magazine editor.
Bugmenot plugin for Mozilla - http://bugmenot.mozdev.org/
Although I'd tend to adopt a neutral atitude regarding the issue of reg-only newspapers, I'd just like to point out that (by the very numbers you linked to) :
NYT Company revenues in Q2 3004 : $ 823.900 M
Circulation : $ 222.453 M (27%)
Advertising revenue : $ 552.013 M (67%)
Other revenues : $ 49.434 M (6%)
NYT Company Costs and Expenses in Q2 3004 : $ 692.200 M
In addition : "Operating profit in the second quarter increased 1.3 percent to $131.8 million from $130.1 million in the second quarter of 2003, primarily because of an increase in advertising revenues."
Nobody said circulation doesn't make any money... But this alone is not enough, and advertising is required to pay for the rest of the expenses and turn in some profit.
We could argue that circulation by itself doesn't even compensate for 50% of the expenses, and therfore that the expression "advertising is what pays for the paper" is not as stupid as you make it sound.
Ceci n'est pas une signature
"If you want physical delivery of the Washington Post, it's still available in your area. You just have to pay someone to courier, or scan and email, or fax you a copy every morning."
The Post offers a facsimile version of the complete paper in PDF format emailed for a fee. So does the New York Times.
So all these folks saying "oh, I'd pay for the paper if I could" are all ignorant asshats.
They do have that information from regular broadcast outlets. Radio stations get rated by Arbitron. http://www.arbitron.com/ TV stations get rated by Nielsen. http://www.nielsenmedia.com/ I have worked in the radio and TV industries, and have participated in Arbitron ratings surveys after I had left the field. You should see the data that the stations get on their audiences! Nothing as to "Jane Smith listened to your station yesterday at 5:50 PM" but it does say "Your station had 5000 male listeners, aged 24-30, between 5 and 6 PM. 2000 male listeners, aged 18-24...."
Newspapers and magazines have distribution data for their subscribers as well. They may or may not have age/gender/income type of info, but they definitely have distribution info which can be compared to census data. "The higher income area of town has a 50% subscription rate of 50,000 copies daily, while the lower income area has 25% saturation at 10,000 copies daily."
That information (whether collected via outside surveys, inside subscription rates, or user registration) is vital to the advertising prices the company can charge. I would not be willing to spend as much for advertising on a radio station that has half the listeners as one that has twice as many in my target audience. It is simple bang-for-the-buck logic.
The reason why advertisers are willing to pay more for TV ads than Internet ads is simple. TV ads are pretty much captive audiences. Tivo and other PVR users excluded, most people will leave the volume up during commercials, hearing the jingle and brand name bombardment even while they go into the kitchen to get a beer. Web site ads either sit quietly in the background being ignored by the vast majority, or they get up front in your face upsetting you. Can you name, without looking, the ad on the top of the page now? How about the one on the previous page?
Another problem with Internet advertisement is the duplication of content. If you want to watch the latest Nerds game, you have to watch it on whatever local channel caries XYZ network. With online content, more than likely another source has it too. As an example, a friend sent me a link to an article on a local TV news station's web page. They require registration, so I went to the website for my local newspaper and grabbed basically the same article written by another reporter, without registration.
I hope this helps shed some light on the subject for you. One of the best forms of advertisement on the net is the viral marketing. Especially when the user has something to gain, besides the content, to give their information. To see an example, click the link in my sig.