Rupert Murdoch appeared on Fox News Business Channel, discussing the future of newspapers. The bottom line is that Murdoch believes consumers will pay subscriptions to read online newspapers.
Richard Greenfield, analyst at Pali Research, who alerted me to this video, said this in response to Murdoch’s view that people will pay for newspapers.
“We completely agree that people need news and want to know about their
community, but we are far less certain that they will be willing to pay
for it monthly, given the wide array of free content available from
news sources outside the newspaper industry: CNN, ESPN, HuffingtonPost, etc…
While it is hard to imagine the vast majority of newspapers in the
US shifting to a paid model online, it is even harder to imagine
competing news sources, such as those mentioned above, shifting to a
paid subscription model. Even the News Corp.’s own NY Post does not
charge for its website (click here). Murdoch wants consumers to pay for newspapers online, but newspapers
are increasingly struggling to charge consumers for printed versions.”
