Sacramento Bee, and most other newspapers in America, struggle to figure out how to get money from you.
How does news come to you? How should it be paid for?
In a paper newspaper, what you pay for scarcely covers the cost of dead tree pulp, ink, printing, and delivering. Pulp newspapers make money from advertisers.
People are used to getting something for nothing on the internet. Like a lot of people, I read several on line newspapers a day, and don’t pay squat for them. I also get great news from www.indymedia.org.
In the recent past, on line newspapers were stepkids to paper news. The on line version was supported by the print version and the ads were the same advertisers, they just enjoyed a new, wider distribution. The "thinning" of big pulp news conglomerates was, in part, a result of papers not knowing how to market on line. It is still a problem, since for the first time, advertisers know how much traffic they get from a publication, since they often pay by the hit. Businesses still have to advertise, and on line businesses understand it’s part of life, but advertisers are shopping for the best deal possible.
News providers are squirming.
Prospect readers might recall a recent article discussing media baron Rupert Murdoch, and his take on "paying for news". Long time readers will remember an article where AP threatened to sue the Prospect (and a million other papers and bloggers and Google) for stealing news.
Long time net surfers also realize that good quality, free information on the internet is getting thinner. People often provide a sample, but to get more you have to sign up for something, at which time the site makes money from your personal information, or you have to PayPal for a download.
Another way of making a web newspaper pay is to sell space to advertisers like Google Ads. They take advantage of the fact that people anywhere in the world can read an on line newspaper. Advertising isn’t local anymore, its context specific. Read an article about hernias, and the ads will be for trusses. They also typically leave a "cookie" on your computer that keeps track of your shopping habits. Note: you should ALWAYS clear your "internet cache" and "cookies" folders when you’re done surfing the net to prevent the collection of your personal internet data.
The next few years will shake out how people will pay for news and entertainment, but one thing is sure: the market will be tight.
The Sacramento Bee is polling people to find out how they’re willing to pay. The link is here.
NOTE: Sierra County Prospect and privacy: Our subscribers send no personal information, all we have is an email address, and we never, ever share that with anyone. All email addresses are controlled in house, and are kept in passworded files. Prospect and paying for news: We serve the local market, meaning Sierra County and surrounding rural counties. Businesses get the benefit of a local market, and a larger market, too. Many local businesses rely on people from out of the area who have an interest in Sierra and Plumas counties for recreation or resource extraction. Local businesses are used to paying for an ad by the inch, so that’s how we charge. We don’t have to print on pulp and haul tons of paper around, and the cost of our ads reflects that. They also reach people all over California who "google" Sierra County, California. That’s free with us.
