The lesson here is not that free content trumps pay (though, all things
being equal, it will) but that there has to be much more to a pay
strategy than a publisher’s desire to want to be paid. This goes double
when the publisher has been giving his valuable content away for free
for the better part of two decades, as most newspapers have done.
The
trick to charging for content, therefore, is coming up with unique and
valuable information that people will pay for. The converse is to let
information be free that ought to be free. Things, for example, like
the life-threatening commnity emergency in Santa Barbara.
What are some good ideas for paid content? Here are a few for free:
The
Financial Times this month is launching “China Confidential,” a
fortnightly digital newsletter and website promising “premium,
exclusive analysis and predictions on investment themes.” Its slogan,
which could be the mantra for many pay-content initiatives, is “Premium
Investment Intelligence.”
The New York Times could have done the
same thing as the FT if it added a bit of original reporting and some
exclusive features the new environment section it launched last week. At the moment, the section merely repackages
stories previously printed in the paper. But there is a world of
po$$ibility in the Green Inc. blog aiming to deliver insights on “energy, the environment and the bottom line.”
Pay to play
A strong argument for partly charging for online news. The key: a strong brand and deep institutional knowledge.
