I hesitate to write again about newspapers’ insistence on finding a way to make paid content work online.
I’ve written that we can’t cling to the past, that we never made our money by charging for content, that we already know paid content doesn’t work and that people will find other news sources if we erect pay walls.
As David Simon and Ryan Chittum campaigned for pay walls in the Columbia Journalism Review, I considered jumping in on the issue. As the New York Times, which couldn’t get people to pay for its famed columnists, prepared to try again, I considered taking another swing, but held up.
What pushed me to write again was a thoughtful question on Facebook from John Newby, a true innovator whose DeliveringQC project was one of the more creative ideas profiled in the Newspaper Next 2.0 report (I initially noted here that DeliveringQC had closed. However John provided an update and it will be relaunching bigger and better shortly; see the comments for details). Here’s what John asked:
While I am on the fence, I have to ask – what have they to lose by building a paywall. If they continue as they are, they lose. At the end of the day, it is that news that is all they have to separate themselves from others. I’m not sure that paywall will accomplish anything, I’m also not sure it will hurt them as they get little revenue from that venture anyway. The only way you win is to try many options, failing at some and learn and grow.
What they have to lose by building a pay wall is the energy and time they waste on an approach that has failed again and again. This is not a visionary idea we have never tried. This is an approach we know from experience doesn’t work. Let’s spend our time and energy on new efforts. Some of them, like DeliveringQC, may not last. But we won’t develop truly innovative solutions by trying the same things over and over.
I am reminded of the movie “Tin Cup,” a weak attempt by Ron Shelton and Kevin Costner to recapture the magic of “Bull Durham.” The pivotal scene is where Roy McAvoy, Costner’s character, has a chance to win the U.S. Open by taking a safe shot. But he wants to go for a record and hits the ball into the water. He stubbornly tries again and again, demanding of his incredulous caddy, “Gimme another ball.”
When McAvoy finally makes the shot, for a 12, Shelton milks it for drama, but the Open title is long gone. Maybe David Simon can write a similar dramatic scene to salvage something from the paywall fiasco to come.
But it’s time for me to stop swinging at this ball. I will pursue the Complete Community Correction approach and try not to mention the paywallers here again. That’s not a promise, just a promise to try.
Oh Steve…you know somebody’s going to yank your chain again and you won’t be able to resist…because you’re STILL right. And you’ll continue to be right as long as you stay this course.
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I hedged enough that the words won’t taste too bad when I have to eat them. But I couldn’t note how much newspaper moguls are acting like Roy McAvoy without noting the similarity in my own repeated swings at the same shot.
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Amen Steve, now how do we break the news to the people who will not take the hint?
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Forget Simon – there’s a full-length feature project for Scorsese or Soderbergh in this. Topher Grace plays Jim, a fresh-faced Web content producer recently hired by a NYT-esque newspaper. When the paper erects a paywall, Jim begins sneaking content home on a flash drive and posting it online for free under the blog pseudonym freepress. Chris Cooper plays Gordon Kane (too obvious?), the CEO bent on learning freepress’ true identity. Matt Damon plays Kane’s hatchetman, who’s never named in the movie. Zooey Deschanel is Casey, Jim’s coworker and love interest. She learns his secret. freepress’ blog is wildly successful.
When Casey won’t give Kane freepress’ name, she’s fired.
Jim feels guilty; he wants to turn himself in and demand Casey be rehired. But she urges him to to keep up the fight.
The movie culminates with a night chase scene a la “The Departed” in which Jim barely avoids being discovered by Damon’s character. The next day, Kane ominously calls Jim into his office. Jim’s nervous and sweatig, he’s worried he’s going to get sued. Instead, Kane tells him he’s been doing a great job and offers him a promotion – running the paywall. There’s a pause, Jim laughs. He then quits and walks out with no explanation, leaving Kane stunned. In the epilogue, we learn that Kane was fired when his paywall cost the paper 75 percent of its uniques. The paywall was taken down. Jim and Casey now live in a cabin upstate. They continue to blog and make just enough through self-serve display advertising to get buy. The final scene is of the couple happily playing with their dog. The title if this blockbuster would of course be “Freedom of the Press.”
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Sorry about the typos – iPhone issues.
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No sweat, Ian. I use the iPhone excuse all the time. And I want a credit in the movie.
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News from another comment from John Newby on my Facebook page: “Just a sidenote, Deliveringqc has moved and is set to become a combination reader loyalty site, discounted gift certificate, great coupons, auction, classified and much more set to roll out within the next couple weeks. Will make the delivering site look like small potato’s. I believe it will replace most subscriber premiums and potentially become the loyalty program. It’s been a blast creating.” That’s great news. I will watch for the upgrade and report it here on the blog.
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I will pay for content online as soon as I’m caught up on all the free stuff.
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