The Financial Times has decided to make access to its online content free of charge. This follows the about-face at the New York Times last month. As Eric Sass says at Media Daily News:
And in late September, Fitch Ratings issued a report endorsing free, ad-supported content as the most profitable approach for newspaper companies.
There you have it, cover price matters no more online. Make it free, get eyeballs and charge advertisers. This should not be a surprise to newsagents. The cover price of newspapers has not kept pace with CPI. In some cases, 10% in 10 years – while advertising has jumped more than CPI every year.
The more news is available online free, the more over the counter customers will migrate online. This is another disruption to the newsagent model which we need to understand and plan for. Publishers love the online model as it eliminates much of the cost of distribution – the only reason they have a cover price for the print edition.
Mark
Incorrect I believe. Please refer to:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/4733dd3e-6f76-11dc-b66c-0000779fd2ac,Authorised=false.html?_i_location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F4733dd3e-6f76-11dc-b66c-0000779fd2ac.html&_i_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.google.com.au%2Fnews%3Fhl%3Den
Keep up the good work
Tony
It is the most inevitable move to make.
hello mark,
sorry to trouble you again because of my poor english.
i am not sure with the meaning of “online content free of charge”.
do you mean Financial Times provide advertising rooms for free to the advertisers?
or Financial Times provide online news for free?
thanks for your patient.
kianna 😛
Kianna,
By online content free of charge I mean news and information you would find in newspapers and newspaper related sites.
mark