News consortium seeks end of free content
By Stewart Mitchell and Reuters
Posted on 21 Aug 2009 at 14:47
The days of free news on the internet could be numbered, according to a report from the Los Angeles Times that claims News Corp executives have been hawking the idea of a consortium of publishers around potential partners.
According to the report, senior News Corp executives have met with counterparts at the major publishing houses to build a strategy to start charging for content en masse.
The move follows News Corp owner Rupert Murdoch’s assertion that his company would start charging for content “within a year”.
"The digital revolution has opened many new and inexpensive methods of distribution," Murdoch has said. "But it has not made content free. Accordingly, we intend to charge for all our news websites."
The possibility of forming a consortium to make charging for content possible reflects the growing animosity traditional publishers have for the internet news sites they feel enjoy all the benefits of supplying news without having pay for a reporting network.
Wall Street Journal editor Robert Thomson is on record as saying that Google and other news aggregators which believe content should be free are "parasites or tech tapeworms in the intestines of the Internet".
The LA Times report suggests the major news providers realise they cannot successfully start charging unless they all start doing so at the same time.
“The reality is that unless a lot of people who produce news act in unison to start charging for content, then individually they will fail," the newspaper quoted media consultant Alan Mutter as saying.
News Corp could not be immediately reached for comment.
From around the web
James
Will this not drive people towards the BBC?
It will be interesting to see how they are going to charge and how much. Will the on-line version of a newpaper be cheaper than the print edition with those 'inexpensive methods of distribution' factored into the on line price or like ebooks will they cost more?
By JamesD29 on 21 Aug 2009 
Anti-competitive
Would such a consortium not be anti-competitive?
By Bassey1976 on 21 Aug 2009
CARTEL
They may have already commited an offence, conspiracy anyone? or am I talking B$ as usual
By darkhairedlord on 21 Aug 2009
bbc is the problem
and we know the eu has ruled against the bbc before for being uncompetitive. if we are "taxed" tens of millions so they can unfairely give out content that stops 3rd parties without a tax sub compete, i expect the bbc to be told to scale back again
By equityguru on 21 Aug 2009
Who owns the copyright on the news anyway?
The problem is that the news is fact generated from a variety of sources. How can any one organisation expect to profit from that? Opinion, yes, charge for that if you can, I don't give a f*** what your opinion is, I just want the facts!
By BornOnTheCusp on 21 Aug 2009
Is that NEWS or STORIES they want to charge for?
They want paying for telling us the news? Good luck with that "going out of business" plan...
Nobody can copyright or supress facts, so any attempt by Moneybags Murdoch to do so, will be met with scorn and opposition.
What's he going to do about the millions of bloggers? Sue them? Can't say - that'd be news....
By cheysuli on 22 Aug 2009
Wouldn't this be price fixing if done in the UK?
By ANTIcarr0t on 22 Aug 2009
Are they serious?
Are they daft? People just aren't going to pay for access to news websites.
People will just use one of the many other news sites such as the BBC. I for one don't care about their special colomns or 'opinons', I just want the news.
They'll loose visitors and in turn loose online advertisting revenue. Nice work Rupert ;)
By Starbuck89 on 22 Aug 2009
I see the EU and the USA looking at this one
you read it like this article written then they could be class as a cartel which is illegal
Mark
By mprltd on 23 Aug 2009
PC Pro's stance?
So - if news is not free, how would PC Pro respond to its own news site? (that would be this one).
Would you start to charge?
I subscribe to the magazine, but pop on here for more recent news stories (obviously it is a fast moving industry and waiting for a month between news is no way to keep up-to-date!)
By joecool12 on 25 Aug 2009
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