Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Good luck Mr Murdoch

Apparently, Rupert Murdoch has been bemoaning free access to news online. Reuters has reported him saying "People reading news for free on the Web, that's got to change.... The question is, should we be allowing Google to steal all our copyright... not steal, but take. Not just them but Yahoo."

Good luck with that pay fior news model. It's been tried before and it eventually failed. I doubt it would work again unless there was some sort of cartel in the global news industry. Even then it won't stop blogs reporting on what has been reported.

8 comments:

Demetrius said...

Sky News news? Its just another celebrity shopping channel with occasional references to what goes on in the middle of London and Washington, oh, and something about Wayne Rooney being pregnant.

Anonymous said...

What Murdoch hates is unmediated comment made by people he can't ultimately sack. Meta op-ed, anyone?

IanVisits said...

The thing is, people don't read the news for free online, any more than they read The Metro for free on the morning commute.

There is a "payment" made by being presented with advertising.

Consumers generally accept the trade off between being offered content in exchange for advertising.

Now, if you are a nasty person who blocks adverts on websites, then that is a very different issue - and one which I have limited sympathy with, as most quality news sites also show quality advertising.

If you are Mr Jackie Smith, then adblock on naughty websites, which are (allegedly) festooned with dodgy adverts is a different matter ;)

Anonymous said...

Ooh according to Ian I am a nasty person! :) Goodo!

Z.

T'old 'un said...

Murdoch and his ilk are nothing but parasites. he has got to his dominant position through nothing but "Legal Blackmail" called lobbying. The entire business of "advisors", "donors" and "Honours for services rendered" is rotton through and through and should be dumped along with all the rest of "accepted Politics"

Adrian P said...

It's not Free, most online blogs and newpapers carry advertising, that's how most things should be funded, by advertising.
what Mr NWO Murdoch is really concerned about is people finding out just how much control he has over our views of the world.
For example:-

Sept 11th
July 7th

Unknown said...

The Wall Street Journal (Murdoch) charges for content. In theory so does the FT but you don't have to pay for it. The WSJ is just typical Murdoch drivel anyway.

dizzy said...

Have decided to let 9/11 truther loon through for fun