Newspaper Execs Hold Secret Meeting To Discuss Paywalls 390
Techdirt got wind of a secret meeting by newspaper execs, complete with antitrust lawyers, to discuss how to proceed on the issue of implementing paywalls going forward. Of course, if newspapers decide to all lock away their content that just means the rest of us will have a bunch of great journalism talent to pick from soon thereafter. "You may have noticed a bunch of stories recently about how newspapers should get an antitrust exemption to allow them to collude -- working together to all put in place a paywall at the same time. That hasn't gone anywhere, so apparently the newspapers decided to just go ahead and try to get together quietly themselves without letting anyone know. But, of course, you don't get a bunch of newspaper execs together without someone either noticing or leaking the news... so it got out. And then the newspapers admitted it with a carefully worded statement about how they got together 'to discuss how best to support and preserve the traditions of news gathering that will serve the American public.' And, yes, they apparently had an antitrust lawyer or two involved."
Re:One idea... (Score:5, Informative)
After a few years, phase out the fee (hum...).
I present to you the Federal Telephone Excise Tax [taxfoundation.org]. Once a tax or fee is on the books it will be next to impossible to remove it - it will just be repurposed. What really grinds my gears is the Cost Recovery Fee charged each month to support the number portability act. That was is, what, 2004? Let's do the math: 5 years * 100 million cell phone subscribers * 12 months in a year * $1.25 per month = $7.5 billion in cost recovery monies. You really think it cost the cell phone industry that much money to support number portability? My professional wild assed guess is that it cost the industry 1 billion to implement and maybe 1 million a year to maintain/support. The rest of that is pure profit; pure profit I don't see going away any time soon. Now, if the government mandated they use that money to forcibly upgrade their network.
Google bot (Score:5, Informative)
Something has to be done (Score:5, Informative)
I work for a newspaper company and we are going through this exact thing right now. The newspaper industry has gotten used to seemingly endless financing and now sites like Craigslist and Google are doing a better job at what makes newspapers money.
There is no money in journalism. The money comes from classifieds and sponsorship. Now that people can easily get their news from just about anywhere companies are not as willing to shell out major payments for newspaper ads.
Don't get me wrong, a paywall is a TERRIBLE idea but the news industry isn't cheap and people take it for granted. What other ideas are out there to keep news journalism profitable?
Re:One idea... (Score:1, Informative)
If individuals want a service or item, they'll pay for it. If they don't, they won't. That's what "worth paying for" means. They'll also determine the cost/benefit ratio for their individual tastes. Many people subscribe to cable/FIOS/Dish whatever for content because they've determined the cost is worth it, while many others choose to do without or just use over the air broadcasts. Everybody gets to choose for themselves whether something is worth it without imposing Yet Another Tax (or fee or whatever they want to call it) to prop up Yet Another Failed Business Model.
Re:One idea... (Score:3, Informative)
Oh, and as for Watergate [techdirt.com]... those reporters just happened to be the recipients of big news. The FBI should get more credit for it. On top of that, it's not like you really get quality reporting from newspapers [techdirt.com].
Re:One idea... (Score:3, Informative)
seems like it pretty much guarantees a suit (Score:4, Informative)
The 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly somewhat raised the bar for allowing privately-brought anti-trust suits to proceed, but its standard seems to be met here if they do actually implement pay walls, so a suit could at least go to trial. In Twombly, a suit against the Bells was thrown out because it only alleged parallel behavior (not itself illegal) and a claim of conspiracy to carry it out not backed up by any allegations specifying why the plaintiff had any reason to believe it actually was coordinated. Here you can state a sufficient pleading easily: if they simultaneously introduce pay walls, you have parallel behavior, and you additionally allege that they had a meeting at which they discussed carrying out said parallel behavior in concert. Not sure that alone would allow a plaintiff to actually prevail at trial, but it should at least allow a suit to go forward investigating it if this happens (assuming the newspapers don't get a Congressional exemption).
Re:Paywalls a failed business model? Ask Blizzard. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:One idea... (Score:3, Informative)
One idea, based on what I have seen work abroad, is to mandate, for a limited time, a fee of $1 on all Internet connections. You could then use that monthly credit to subscribe to whatever content you chose.
$1 for newspapers... $30 for the RIAA... Another $30 for the MPAA... $20 for game makers... $40 for professional software makers... $15 for TV makers... $10 for documentary makers... $3.50 for book authors...
Where does it end?
Everybody reads AP (Score:3, Informative)
Do they? Or do they just buy a AP or Reuters story, chop it down to 2 paragraphs and print it? Because pretty much every story I see in newspapers is just rehashed AP news.
They might cover local news, but how much local news is truly 'news worthy'?
Re:One idea... (Score:5, Informative)
Hilarious.
I've been working 60-80 hour weeks for nine months because of layoffs by corporate to fund the debt holes they dug at other papers, while at the same time our 401(k) matches are cut, our health insurance is cut, our vacation time is halved and our sick time is cut by 2/3. Thanks to a reply-all fuckup by my boss, the entire newsroom just found out that our publisher wants to axe 3/4 of our copy editing staff by August.
There's no bloggers at the public meetings where school boards try to cut funding to the black schools so the white schools can keep their football programs. There's no bloggers at the city hall meetings, the port board meetings, the county board meetings. The only bloggers at the capitol are partisan hacks angling for work in the machine.
The people who want "big money and perks" left the business two years ago, and that's if they were foolish enough not to switch to PR before they got their mass comm. degree.
The passionate people who never expected to get pay or benefits in a profession where the per-capita income is lower than teaching in public schools are getting ready to switch to PR, political consulting, or flipping burgers.
The idiots who rewrite a press release for 30 minutes and play Peggle for the other 11 1/2 hours that their corporate-appointed "editor" has scheduled them to work are just happy to not be flipping burgers, and wonder why all of the people who've been working there for 20 years start to choke on their own vomit every time they see a kid like that get promoted from intern to reporter.
You want to know why your newspaper sucks? Look at who owns them. Look at what they've thought were good ideas - ignoring the Internet until 2002, paywalling content, cutting news staff, thinking event calendars and photo galleries trump local reporting.
But don't you shit on me for screaming in your ear to pay attention to the utter incompetency in your local and state government. Big newspapers can fuck off and die for all I care. The AP is a corrupt megalomaniac with a bullhorn who's still screaming from its deathbed. But journalists are looking for pay and perks? Fuck you. We came in knowing there wasn't any left for us after corporate was through. That doesn't mean we stopped giving a shit.
Since everybody's picked up your talking points and won't stop pissing them at us, though, fuck it, and fuck you. I'm tired of being bitched at for caring about your city, and your government, and your life, so you don't have to take the time out of your day to care on your own.
If you could take care of your own governance, you wouldn't need blogs, much less papers. Try keeping up with your own goddamned idiot local administration for a month and see if you want to hate me and what I've done for most of my life.