Finding the chase and cutting to it

Last week saw the Murdoch group stating that payment must be made for content on the web. Services are continually changing and the recession has placed some of the cost recover models in jeopardy. So what models are appearing and how will they affect the web?

In the face of recession and drops in advertising revenue. the net is changing. On the 6 August, the FT stated it will charge for on-line media, possibly once you view more than a certain number of articles. Interestingly, the BBC gleefully reported this.

The BBC pretty much ruined this market six years ago: a BBC reporter can see an article in a pay-per-view site and report the news by correctly referencing it and thereby effectively undercutting the original provider. So long as the item is properly referenced there is actually nothing to stop the BBC doing this, outside of internal editorial policy.  And nobody anywhere needs to pay to access the BBC news site: it’s the best ambassador we have to the world.

So six years ago the market changed to being supported by advertising revenue, instead of subscriptions. As we are mid-recession this revenue stream has been severely challenged, so it will be interesting to see if pay as you go will prove more resilient to the BBC’s play.