The Internet has not been friendly to print media. Paying those 50 cents for a newspaper or $10 for a magazine subscription just seems stupid when you can get all the news and analysis on time.com instead of TIME magazine. Worse yet, as the Onion wryly points out, customers become outraged whenever some news organization has the sheer audacity to actually charge customers for online content. As a result, newspaper and news magazine media companies everywhere, from the Rocky Mountain News to the Chicago Tribune, have become bankrupt, with many others struggling to stay afloat. How can one turn around print media and transform a failing business model to make the Internet an asset rather than the enemy?
The New York Times has fired the first salvo in this fight, going to a “freemium” model in which viewers can read about 20 free articles before having to pay for access. However, it doesn’t address the key issue facing print media in the Internet Age: news is treated as a commodity. No matter if Time, NY Times, or U.S. News reports an event, the event itself is not going to change, nor are the facts and the basic analysis underlying them (the destruction of the supply line will decrease supplies!). Therefore, if one news website blocks access to its content behind a paywall, consumers can simply switch to another, free website to catch up on the news. Barring (illegal) collusion, the industry is basically trapped in a classic prisoner’s dilemma: if everyone charges, everyone wins; however, if you charge and the others don’t, you don’t get traffic or money.
But what if the news isn’t a commodity? Consider the Wall Street Journal: it has been able to operate on a “freemium” subscription model because the quality of its business and financial news has been presented in a superior format: easy-to-use stock trackers, blanket coverage of company moves and deals, and so on. Even if the information presented can be found on Forbes, Fortune, or BusinessWeek, many people paid for the presentation. What the WSJ has done here is classic marketing: it has identified a defined customer base- business professionals who need concise, easy-to-read, yet comprehensive and real-time news and analysis due to their time constraints and occupational needs- and designed everything around that consumer. The information is comprehensive, up-to-date and at one’s fingertips, whether the fingers happen to be on a laptop or a smartphone.
Print media companies should take a cue and design similar business models to take advantage of any unique advantages they possess. For example, local papers can host Groupon-style deals as a source of revenue, taking back the coupon-clippers it used to have a stranglehold over. Regional and national newspapers can offer industry-leading comprehensiveness in certain select categories like health and science news. All newspapers can offer customized news that only gives customers the articles that they care about, or hire talented columnists and writers to create uniquely well-written pieces and exposes. One newspaper can be known for its reviews section; another may be known for its unique photo essays. The point is for the news company to take something commoditized- news- and turn it into something only it offers and that customers want so that it can charge a price for it. Far from compromising news quality, the Internet, if used correctly, may lead to higher-quality writing as companies try to prove that their web material is worth paying for.
