In an article published at Business Spectator yesterday, Alan Kolher sees the handling of micropayments as key to newspaper and magazine publishers monetising content online. His comments fit with those of Rupert Murdoch over the last couple of weeks. They also fit with the announcement at the Apple developers conference last week where they announced easier handling on micropayments from within an application on the iPhone.
Once publishers see how easy it will become to monetise content online they will rush the new distribution channel.
I come across like a cracked record on this stuff. I get it. I get that our world, the purpose for which our channel was created, is being turned upside down. I am frustrated that few other newsagents get it. Those facilitating this ignorance will have a lot to answer for one day.
It isn’t going to happen. I don’t mean news won’t move online. It will. I do mean newspaper publishers will never get enough readers to pay piecemeal for online news items.
I’ve written about this a number of times on my blog. The latest piece is here: http://is.gd/152xM.
The only publisher in Australia to attempt charging for online content is Fairfax Business Media, which owns The Australian Financial Review.
For a long time the number of subscribers was measured in just three digits — even now there are are only a few thousand online subscribers. That’s barely enough to cover the website costs.
The AFR also sells individual stories. I can’t tell you how many it sells, but I understand, the number is very low.