blog by arwen

Rupert Murdoch thinks you will and has announced plans to remove all his “news” sites from Google sometime next year when they launch required paid subscriptions to access content. Apparently discussions surrounding his plans may violate some anti-trust laws in the U.K..

What a fantastic business strategy for publishing in the 21st century, especially at a time when (according to The Guardian) Newscorp has experienced “a plunge in profits from newspapers, which saw their earnings fall from $134m to $25m”.

Way to be Murdoch. Too bad you fail to realize that in the U.S., your target demographic for Faux News can’t afford toothpaste these days let alone online content….Of course, Murdoch also owns the Wall St. Journal, but folks who read that publication online have plenty of cash to pay for content and already do so.

An interesting article supporting the strategy appears in HuffPo of all unlikely places. I suppose only time will tell if it works.

As my English Granny likes to say “Good riddance to bad rubbish”!

I say “Don’t let the printing press hit you in the ass on the way out.”

UPDATE: Here is some NY Times coverage featuring thoughts from the blogosphere on the subject. My favorite reader comment is this:

It reminds me of the episode of “The Simpsons” in which Mr Burns attempts to block out the sun and then charge a fee for its use. — Ceadan

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 at 7:54 pm and is filed under Business and Entrepreneurship. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.