Slashdot Mirror
Murdoch's UK Paywall a Miserable Failure
David Gerard writes "As part of his war against free, Rupert Murdoch put the Times and Sunday Times of London behind a paywall. Michael Wolff of Newser asks how that's working out for him. You can guess: miserable failure: 'Not only is nobody subscribing to the website, but subscribers to the paper itself — who have free access to the site — are not going beyond the registration page. It's an empty world.' Not that this wasn't entirely predictable." Update: 07/17 01:41 GMT by T : Frequent contributor Peter Wayner writes skeptically that the Newsday numbers should be looked at with a grain of salt: "I believe they were charging $30/month for the electronic edition and $25/month for the dead tree edition which also offered free access to the electronic edition. In essence, you had to pay an extra $5 to avoid getting your lawn littered with paper. The dead tree edition gets much better ad rates and so it is worth pushing. It's a mistake to see the raw numbers and assume that the paywall failed."
[Nelson Muntz]
No, The FT (subsidiary of Pearson PLC) owns 50% of the Economist, not a controlling interest.
Watch this Heartland Institute video
You compared Rupert Murdoch to Robin Hood?
Wow.
Watch this Heartland Institute video
Was George W. Bush involved into the project ?!?
Best sir,
We are crying here at HQ, as you were one of these loyal long lasting clients we were boasting about. Irma overhere, is devistated; she used to ask every week to handmail out your paper personally but now feels rejected and just was going around with a card to contratulate you on your 35th year of subscription with us. She cancelled the cake-order with your name on it.
We hope your new meaningful relationship with another paper will bring your more satisfaction, while we try to calm Irma down and try to fix our strategy with the purpose to remain profitable in a digital age. Please accept our sincere appologies of the actions of executive management, and accept these scissors to share your news articles with us.
Your friends,
The Times
I think we can keep recursing like this until someone returns 1
Maybe he should have tried this experiment with The Sun. With your paper subscription you get:
1. Tits
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
HOLY SHIT DUDE! Most people use one or two methods of emphasis, but you use *three*! You, sir, are a legend!
You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
i listen to the cantankerous old folks bitch about it at a local tavern
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
Murdoch forgot one thing: his customers are cheap cunts. At least, if the US followers of his empire are any indication.
The Times has put into place its new paywall system, to keep readers, search engines and other criminals from using it to download cars, to the sound of champagne corks popping at the Guardian, Telegraph and BBC.
The newspaper will now require payment of £1 a day for its unique and high-quality editorial viewpoints, as taken from the Sun and rewritten in big words. The site also blocks anyone under 18 from registering, in order to keep the paper's quality demographic aging nicely.
"I firmly support this move," said everyday citizen on the street and certainly not Guardian editor at all Alan Rusbridger. "In fact, it should be ten pounds a day. Ten pounds a story. Then people will really see it as high-quality merchandise and not rewritten press releases and news feeds with Mr Murdoch dictating the editorial page."
"It's ours," said James Murdoch, frothing slightly. "You thieving bastards steal our copyright every time you save a copy into your heads! Well, we'll fix your little wagon. It's a pound a day plus a pound a copy behind your eyes plus a pound a copy you talk about with anyone else plus a pound a copy just fucking because. It's for me and Dad and you can just fuck off. And when we buy the BBC we won't let you watch that either. Arseholes."
"OK, the champagne is Thunderbird Sparkling," said Mr Rusbridger. "Times are tough, you know. But I have complete faith we're on the right path and the Times is doomed. I told ’em, I told ’em. Spare fiddy pee for a Polly Toynbee column? God bless you, sir!"
"I am one hundred percent behind paying for quality journalism," said free culture activist Hiram Nerdboy, 17. "That's why I just gave fifty quid to Wikileaks."
Illustration: Rupert Murdoch with the precioussssssssss.
http://rocknerd.co.uk
I'm trying to read the article @ The Sunday Times, but it's asking me to pay.
I count four: *asterisks*, bold, Title Case, and ALL CAPITALS. Five if you count permutations of more than one (Bold Title Case).
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
Correction - that should be:
3. Tits.
Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
http://www.sigsegv.cx/
Unfortunately, all the other pages contain bollocks. It's kind of a tradeoff, like when you accidentally surf gay porn.
No true leftist would have called for Bush's assassination until after Cheney's funeral. Preferably after Cheney's body had been exhumed, his head cut off, his mouth stuffed with garlic, a wooden stake driven through his heart, and the results sealed in a steel coffin with a non-denominational religious symbol on it and buried at a crossroads at midnight. Get real.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes