Comments on: Free news

By: BuzzMachine » Blog Archive » Desperate times need desperate models

BuzzMachine » Blog Archive » Desperate times need desperate models — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 20:52:27 +0000

[...] drastic models of new newspaper businesses, such as: * The free newspaper — here’s an argument that the Guardian should go that way. * The online-only newspaper — that has happened in [...]

By: BuzzMachine » Blog Archive » Sell!

BuzzMachine » Blog Archive » Sell! — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 13:26:50 +0000

[...] 3. Give it away. A few weeks ago in the Guardian, a former newspaper editor made back-of-the-envelope calculations to argue that giving away the paper makes sense because it reduces marketing costs and increases circulation and ad revenue (while also increasing paper costs) but that the real value is that it would force the organization to stop protecting the paper and to drive people online. I like that in theory. I’ll be no one will have the balls to do it. [...]

By: Ethiopian News

Ethiopian News — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 00:18:13 +0000

Its not a bad idea giving out free newspapers as it will reach a wider audience and the tabloids can still make money from advertising

By: Jersey Exile

Jersey Exile — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 15:20:40 +0000

One of the reasons why it would be more difficult to give away the NYT is its widespread marketing and distribution outside of the New York Metro area. To many of these non-New Yorkers, the NYT represents a luxury item which confers an aura of status and culture that is more than worth paying the markup for home delivery to their own burg or ‘burb. Making such an item free (while not a bad idea at all IMHO) would cheapen that cachet, raising the interesting question of whether the NYT’s at-large readership would follow such a move or whether they’d select another expensive newspaper of national circulation to fill that niche reserved for conspicuous consumption.

By: Ponto Media » Um dia, todos os jornais serÃ£o gratuitos?

Ponto Media » Um dia, todos os jornais serÃ£o gratuitos? — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 23:14:49 +0000

[...] [dica de Buzz Machine] [...]

By: Web 2.0 Newspapers » Media, Messages, and Moolah: The Right Content in the Right Form

Tue, 12 Sep 2006 19:32:03 +0000

[...] In part a response to Jeff Jarvis' post that evaluates making paid-for papers free and how revenue from Web site ads works (or could work better), Matt Terenzio at Classyfeeds discusses the role of advertising on newspaper Web sites and fiting content to form (i.e. not just recreating print concepts online). I agree wholesale about the multimedia advertorials, Flash "books" etc. that he scorns as not only near-worthless content but poor uses of the Web medium, and I rather enjoyed Terenzio's discourse on the idea of mediia-owned distribution channels. He comes down to this: "Newspapers need to free themselves of the baggage that is weighing down their online strategies. Let print be print, and online be online, and don’t let one hinder the other." [...]

By: yelvington

yelvington — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 16:12:22 +0000

Notably, McClatchy's Hilton Head Island Packet (paid circ) is in direct competition with Bluffton Today, the free hyperlocal tabloid.

By: Web 2.0 Newspapers » Quick Hits: Web 2.0 Newspaper Upper-daters

Web 2.0 Newspapers » Quick Hits: Web 2.0 Newspaper Upper-daters — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 14:03:40 +0000

[...] UPDATE: The Independent's roundup of "freesheets" (dailies) worldwide that have (via BuzzMachine). Jeff Jarvis says: "But if I were, say, McClatchy, I’d take one paper in one market and rework it — getting rid of the things you keep only to try to keep paid circulation (stock tables, TV listings, and so on) and investing in killer local reporting. And then I’d get the web site ready for prime time, making it even better than the paper. And then I’d give away the paper and test Addis’ thesis. With enough balls and smarts, I think it might work." Right on. [...]

By: Classyfeeds » Drop Print-to-Web and may the best man win

Classyfeeds » Drop Print-to-Web and may the best man win — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 13:08:43 +0000

[...] This conflict includes circulation revenue, as pointed out by Richard Addis, and expounded upon by Jeff Jarvis. I’ll only add to their points that circulation revenue covers print and distribution costs. When those costs are largely removed, there is no need to pass them on to user, and that’s the reason why web content is free. [...]

By: bittorent

bittorent — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 12:49:15 +0000

I read the article and one flaw in his arguement would seem to be that websites make much less from ad revenue per reader than print newspapers do.