December 16, 2011
Like a candle in the wind
Maite Fernandez has a Q&A at ijnet with Ken Auletta, who has written several books on technology and the news business:
The problem is twofold: it is not clear that readers will subscribe online for information they think they can get for free. And since readers spend much less time reading the same publication online as they do the print version, advertisers pay about one tenth for the same ad online as they do in a newspaper. And since most publications will not be abandoning readers who insist on the print edition, costs will remain high. To date, the savings from going online are not matched by the online revenues…
That’s it in a nutshell, but it isn’t anything we haven’t heard before. How about offering up some solutions?