Posts by Bernard Hickey
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Hard News: Paying for what doesn't come…, in reply to Tom Semmens,
Tom
Micropayments are a seductive idea, but the ones that people have tried have flopped.
The only paywalls I've seen or heard that worked were the 'perforated' ones operated by the FT.com, WSJ.com and NYTimes.
You can get behind the wall by bouncing in from Google and (sometimes) twitter and blogs. Essentially they nag you into subscribing.
They work (so far) because of the enormous brands they have and the ability for subs to the FT and WSJ to essentially write it off as a work expense.
I don't think paywalls will work for anything general interest while there is still so much free.
Another option that has been tried in Slovakia is to create a single site that includes all the news from all the mainstream outlets in that one country and sell subscriptions to the single site, with micropayments then passed on to the publishers based on the number of articles read. See more detail on Piano Media here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_Media
The idea is that in a closed market like Slovakia (with a non-international language) it might actually work.
I've often wondered by Fairfax, APN, Mediaworks and TVNZ don't get together to do a similar thing here.
cheers
Bernard -
Hard News: Paying for what doesn't come…, in reply to Sacha,
Sacha
I'm not sure. I've only just subscribed to the NBR in recent days. My initial impression is there are fewer comments and less extreme comments on the paywalled articles.
But I'd need a few more weeks of viewing to give a more confident view. Your thoughts?
cheers
Bernard -
Hard News: Paying for what doesn't come…, in reply to Kumara Republic,
Deep Red
Good points. Many others have pointed me to the successors to TVNZ7. On my list of people to contact.
NZ is too small to be too splintered.
cheers
Bernard -
Hard News: Paying for what doesn't come…, in reply to Peter Griffin,
Peter is right. We're very keen to partner with newspapers, television and radio to get this journalism out to the broadest possible audience and get the best value for the money paid by members.
cheers
Bernard -
Hard News: Paying for what doesn't come…, in reply to Russell Brown,
Russell
Many thanks for writing this piece, which is the most indepth and considered I've seen so far.
Interesting point on restricting the ability to comment to paying members. I agree it would be preferable to have it open and the initial response from people is that openness of commenting is part of the 'gift' to the public that members are paying for.
Fair enough.
I'm searching for that threshold where people feel like they are getting some value for their membership.
Quietly, I've seen plenty of ugly discussions develop between commenters on blogs who don't pay to be part of that community. Having the threshold above the comments may get rid of some of the trolls.
But as you say, it's just a matter of careful management. Maybe I'm just a bit tired of troll management over at Interest.co.nz.
Thanks again Russell for your thoughtful piece.
cheers
Bernard
PS Sorry it took me so long to engage on here. It's been a frantic week. -
Alastair/Russell
What are the risks of blogs/sites like ours joining the Press Council?
Is it simply to avoid the sourges of the BCA and/or the devil we don't known in any new Internet regulator?Do we risk allowing the mainstream media to reverse-engineer standards/activities online?
Do we risk being dependent on the old guys to be part of the 'club'?
Or is this just the price we all have to pay for the excesses of Cameron and co?
cheers
Bernard -
Here's what Alex Tarrant reported on interest.co.nz in March 2009 about a run on big notes
http://www.interest.co.nz/news/hoarding-nz50-and-nz100-notes-seen-septoct-crisis-says-rbnz
cheers
Bernard -
Nice piece Russell
I'm curious too at how these paywalls work. I'm similarly sceptical (although slightly fascinated) by Mr Woolf's views.
I wonder about the NBR's success. I agree with the commenter on the NBR. Chris is a hero, but the rest...
I see he's scrambling now to get an iPad app ready for Friday.
I'm not so sure about iPad.
TradeMe, for example, are very sceptical about iPhones and iPads, given there are so few actually being used by a large number of people. That will change, I suppose.
I reckon the future for online journalism is about having fantastic conversation starters and then starting great conversations between interesting people (with money to spend). Supported by advertising and/or donations. I don't think the iPad is the saviour for these.
I agree with your suggestions that paywalls shut down conversations.
cheers
Bernard -
Proud to be cheap and nasty...
We do however take our guests and business partners around the corner for some great espresso at the Dellows cafe on Jervois Rd. That's our meeting room and corporate dining room. Very cheap.
And I ride my bike to work rather than drive the Rolls or jump in a corporate jet.
I'd love to challenge Barry to a bike race up Parnell Rise...
cheers and thanks again Russell. Nice to catch up with you and the Media7 team yesterday. Looking forward to the show on Thursday night.
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I haven't laughed so much since I read this speech from the good governor....
I bet he has a gun for that inflation targeting business...
cheers