Today’s announcement that News Corp will start to charge for full online access to all its titles is being generally derided. Taken as a standalone move, I agree that it won’t work. I don’t see more than a trickle of subscription revenue no matter how hard they promote. And I doubt it will even be enough to compensate for lost web-advertising. So he is consciously taking a decision that will (peripherally) hurt his bottom line. However, Murdoch isn’t stupid. His thinking is strategic and is about changing customer attitudes. I don’ t believe he’s thinking about the web here – frankly, I think he has probably written off the web as a profitable channel for serving News Corp content. And if he hasn’t, then I am guilty of over-rating his intelligence, as this is truly a lost cause. Murdoch’s move is about preparing the ground to hit the reset button in time for the eReader revolution. In other words, to use the opportunity presented by a new platform in order to get people to pay for news content again. Which means pulling back free content in order to re-educate people about its value. I’ve written elsewhere why I think this is sensible to some degree for almost all publishers. However, I also think that News Corp’s stable of general news titles is least well-positioned to take advantage. So overall – it’s strategic and sensible, but it’s a defensive move and a gambit. I have no doubt that Murdoch can do no more than slow down the decline of News Corp. Its glory days belong entirely to the past.
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