The end of free online news
Jinfo Blog

7th August 2009

By Penny Crossland

Item

Google’s announcement at the beginning of this week that it was quadrupling the number of articles in its historical news archive (http://digbig.com/5badge) could not have come at a better time for web searchers of news. In the last couple of days there have been several announcements from UK newspaper proprietors and editors, who, faced with plunging profits have decided to abandon the ‘free-to-view‘ business model in favour of ‘pay-per-view‘ and ‘freemium‘ business models (as reported on Livewire in July: http://www.vivavip.com/go/e22056). Google does not actually state how many articles it has in its archives (‘several million’ is a figure that has been mentioned), however the post from the Google News Online Team states that publications such as the Sydney Morning Herald, the Manila Standard and The Nation from Thailand amongst others have been added to its list of newspapers. As announced in September last year (http://digbig.com/5badpq), Google plans to digitize gradually all its newspaper archives. It even boasts of a digital edition of the Halifax Gazette from 1753! Meanwhile, print newspapers are continuing to post dire results. The Murdoch media empire suffered a $3.4 billion annual loss last year, leading to the announcement this week that the Sunday Times would be the first of the Murdoch newspapers to launch a ’pay-to-view’ site later this year (http://digbig.com/5badpn). There are plans for other News International titles to follow in time. At the same time, the Financial Times has announced the introduction of a full ’pay-per-view’ model for ft.com by summer 2010 and is reviewing whether any content at all should be made available for free (http://digbig.com/5badpp). The public announcements by the major newspapers publishers of their change in business model is clearly designed to encourage competitors to follow suit. If all the important newspapers start charging for online articles, web users will be forced to pay for news. Google’s boast of providing access to articles back to the 18th century will be little solace for those who need current and reliable news from quality newspapers.

« Blog