Category: Journalism

Media Outlets Prepare to Charge for Content Online – NYTimes.com.

In another story in the “Rupert Murdoch doesn’t get it” category, media sites are increasingly looking at paid models to bolster shrinking revenue streams.

I won’t repeat comments from before, but I’d suggest that media companies could learn a lot from their Web 2.0 peers.  For print news, why not give away the beginning of an article for free, and offer complete articles to subscribers. A good story is already composed in an inverted pyramid (no need to change editorially), and sites like Newser show the demand for shortened news.  If this were combined with advertising that is correctly targeted for the right audience or locale, it’s hard to see how more people reading news couldn’t turn a profit.

I think “old media” needs a leader to show them how to update their business models to work in the network economy.

Prosecutors Say Students Paid Witness to Aid Case – NYTimes.com

Prosecutors said they wanted to determine whether students believed they would receive better grades if they provided evidence to help exonerate the convict… [and have] subpoenaed the grades, e-mail messages and records of students who investigated the murder conviction for the university’s Medill Innocence Project. … Professional journalism groups are concerned that the students may have to submit information they gathered during reporting.

Between student privacy, protection for journalist work materials, bribing a witness, this case sounds like a real tangle.