New York Times Ready To Charge Online Readers

AOG, Madrid

Television pays for itself through advertising, and it is free (unless you have cable). Radio, a medium with a lot of things in common with the internet, also somehow manages to "survive" without charging for content.

The NYT claims that to continue to pay for its "high-cost, ambitious journalism", it must charge online readers. I don't see this as working, especially now that the NYT has gone global and, as it claims, it has 20 million unique readers (I among them).

I think someone has forgotten to remind this paper that online users consult a lot of different sources to get their news, not just one or two.

Especially people under 25. Whilst I know that since we pay for paper, it would make sense to pay for online content, it is also true that there is something in the internet which makes it anathema to even consider this option.

If NYT starts to charge, its 20 million "unique users" will mostly flee.

I don't think I can afford to pay for several papers online. I'm sure that what will happen is that some other paper delivers the same news for free, and that will be the way users will go. Open market means zero fidelity.

NYT, and other who consider going down that road, will soon experience a rude awakening.

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Twitter...Part 1

AOG, Madrid

What is the deal with Twitter? I have no idea. It does seem to be the next cool site right after Facebook.

Personally I haven’t bothered with it until today, when I read a newspiece which stated that Ellen DeGeneres had beaten CNN on it. Link here.

So, what did I do? In a moment of insanity, I thought I would sign up. Yes, it’s a slow afternoon here on financial news universe, Madrid sector.

Well, I should have known better. The site was down.



Now, of course, having regained my sanity momentarily, I am thinking about it twice. Thrice even.

Do I really want to be on Twitter? Well, I don’t know. I know very little about it, but these are the impressions I have of it so far:

You type in where you are and what you are doing.

Always.

And then again.

And once more.

Ad infinitum.

And then you die.

So, with this is mind, do I really want to “Twitt”? I don’t really see the point.

But I may change my mind.

This is how Twitter bills itself:

"Twitter is a free service that lets you keep in touch with people through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?"

Still, I am not seduced. All I can say is that while I was ready to join (or at least have a wander) a while back, their technical hiccup has put me off.