Newsday and Chronicle on the Eve of Destruction

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So both the San Francisco Chronicle and Newsday intend to try and charge for their online content. That’s precisely the kind of idea one would expect from the likes of the Donner Party, cornered, starving, desperate.

As they consume what is left of their operations in this manner, we can now safely start composing the obituaries of these two storied newspapers. Even if they disappear only partially and briefly behind the pay wall, their audiences will dwindle, and their brands will weaken.

By the time their clueless executives reverse this wrong-headed strategy, other news organizations will have stolen marker share. Newsday, in the midst of the busiest, most crowded media market on the planet, has competitors on every flank.

The Chronicle is in a smaller market with fewer competitors, but this news has to cheer the San Francisco Examiner, the San Jose Mercury News, the Marin Independent Journal, the Oakland Tribune, the Bay Guardian, SF Weekly, and a spate of smaller publications.

There’s really no explanation for pushing news or opinion content being a pay wall other then a strong impulse for self-destruction. Maybe it’s time for a suicide hotline for media companies, 1-800-bad-idea.

Tags: Newsday, Chronicle, Construction, Advertising & Promotion, Marketing, David Weir

In addition to serving as a BNET Media analyst/blogger, David Weir is a veteran journalist and the author of several books. Weir is a co-founder and vice-president of the Center for Investigative Reporting, as well as an editorial board member of The Nation.

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1

Dagpotter

02/28/09 | Report as spam

RE: Newsday and Chronicle on the Eve of Destruction

The question is how to make money from your online readership. Do you rely just on advertising which is traffic based, or hope that the a lessor number of people will pay for your content. That is a hard nut to crack as most people expect the internet to be "free". If you read any of Howard Kurtz's online chats there are always people saying they would be willing to pay some sort of online subscription fee but that is easy to say. What else can a newspaper do except try to find that perfect niche which makes people want to read it. I don't buy into the "liberal bias" thing 100%, especially for the Chronicle, but there must be soemthing?
2

hotweir

03/02/09 | Report as spam

RE: Newsday and Chronicle on the Eve of Destruction

If I knew how to charge for content, I'd probably be a rich guy, rather than a writer vectoring steeply toward the poverty line. Pieces of a strategy may include hyper-local, geo-coded content that attracts new backing from local advertisers, and sponsored content for brand advertisers. Micro-payments are roundly ridiculed elsewhere, but I anticipate them to be part of the future. Evolving advertising technologies for mobile devices should create revenue opportunities. But how to support the type of large news organizations we've had in the past, with cost structures utterly out of step with the times, is a model that eludes me (and everybody else) for now.