Newsagents are sure to find the video of a discussion on ABC’s Lateline last night between Eric Beecher, publisher of Crikey and former editor of the Sydney Morning Herald, and Richard Ackland, Sydney Morning Herald Columnist, on the future of journalism most interesting.
Try and read an article in a UK paper on the net and all they give you is the first few sentences, the rest you have to buy or subscribe to. Fairfax should try it and while their at it stop the TV morning shows reading the paper on air, and claiming their opinion, maybe copyright what they print in the paper. Putting the price up won’t hurt as well.
Received this via Crikey last night in Tips & rumours section, someone is letting us know what is going on at the AGE .
The Age: How to perfect the art of customer service and grow a business. Listen and obtain feedback from readers on your product. Solution: Close your Reader Services department.
Increase reader satisfaction. Solution: Slash page numbers and copies.
Sell more copies of your paper. Solution: Close your major retail outlet.
Increase subscriptions and circulation. Solution: Reduce your sales employees by 30%.
Improve customer service. Solution: Close down your switchboard after 8.30pm, on weekends and re-route calls to Sydney.
Increase youth readership. Solution: Close your education unit.
Create a happy workplace. Solution: Sack 100 staff, close the canteen, prevent night-shift employees’ access to food or drink, give big cash bonuses to the CEO, frog-march sacked employees out of the building. Last one out turn out the lights.
Paul,
Not sure which UK papers you refer to as I “flick through” a number of them (The Guardian, The Independent, and even some tabloids like The Sun….for the sport coverage obviously) and don’t encounter having to register.
Some of them used to do it but readership dropped so in turn advertising revenue dropped so they opened them back up.