Would you pay for local news?

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howdystranger

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#238172 5-Jul-2018 15:35

Hi all,

This is a rather under-cooked idea, but I've been getting frustrated that there's no way to pay for digital local news. I live in Wellington and my only option is to subscribe to the paper Dom Post (doesn't work as I'm in an apartment building, and most of it is stale by the time it's delivered), or look at their website covered with ads. Not that much of the Dom Post is actually focused on Wellington news either...

I've been wondering if there could be a market for local news (no national news) , with regular newsletters summarising what's been happening. Would you pay $10 or $15 a month for such a service?

In my head the site would have very minimal ads (say one on the main page) with the vast bulk of revenue coming from subscriptions (+paywall).

Would be interested in feedback.. perhaps the days of paying for news are over?

Many thanks

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BDFL - Memuneh
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#2049910 5-Jul-2018 15:44

howdystranger:

perhaps the days of paying for news are over?

I'm not sure the days of paying for (online) news ever existed. I do pay for Washington Post and The Guardian digital versions, but I see myself as the exception.

People will jump and say "Yes, I'd do it" but when time comes there's a lot of excuses for not doing it, mainly in the national/international level seeing there's plenty of free options available.

Things like microtransaction - webpass.io (tested here on Geekzone), Brave browser (seriously, moved from sharing $$$ with publishers to sharing cryptocurrency tokes?), Flattr, Patreon were tested.

You have to generate a lot of good stuff for people to consider paying a subscription.

Then there's the big names - Google Subscribe for example but these seem so far away (as in, like many other things they don't seem to be interested to outside the USA or even replying to emails).

Sorry if this is not the answer you wanted to hear. Just giving you a heads up that this is a tough one to break.

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Wheelbarrow01

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#2049911 5-Jul-2018 15:45

When you say local news, do you mean "Mrs O'Leary's cat has been found safe and well after being missing for 3 days" or do you mean actual news (sport, local politics etc) from across the Wellington region? And where will this news come from - your own roving reporters? Or will you just repackage the regional news pages from the Stuff website?

wellygary

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#2049917 5-Jul-2018 15:54

howdystranger:

Hi all,

This is a rather under-cooked idea, but I've been getting frustrated that there's no way to pay for digital local news. I live in Wellington and my only option is to subscribe to the paper Dom Post (doesn't work as I'm in an apartment building, and most of it is stale by the time it's delivered), or look at their website covered with ads. Not that much of the Dom Post is actually focused on Wellington news either...

I've been wondering if there could be a market for local news (no national news) , with regular newsletters summarising what's been happening. Would you pay $10 or $15 a month for such a service?

You can get the Dompost as a digital edition via pressreader for $25 a month, which is an exact replica of the printed version,(no website ads) (and should have been promoted by Fairfax years ago..)

http://fairfaxmedia.newspaperdirect.com/epaper/helpandsupport.aspx?subpage=PressdisplaySubscriptionPlans#10

If you've got a tablet is actually not a bad way to read it,

howdystranger

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#2049920 5-Jul-2018 16:02

freitasm:

howdystranger:

perhaps the days of paying for news are over?

I'm not sure the days of paying for (online) news ever existed. I do pay for Washington Post and The Guardian digital versions, but I see myself as the exception.

People will jump and say "Yes, I'd do it" but when time comes there's a lot of excuses for not doing it, mainly in the national/international level seeing there's plenty of free options available.

Things like microtransaction - webpass.io (tested here on Geekzone), Brave browser (seriously, moved from sharing $$$ with publishers to sharing cryptocurrency tokes?), Flattr, Patreon were tested.

You have to generate a lot of good stuff for people to consider paying a subscription.

Then there's the big names - Google Subscribe for example but these seem so far away (as in, like many other things they don't seem to be interested to outside the USA or even replying to emails).

Sorry if this is not the answer you wanted to hear. Just giving you a heads up that this is a tough one to break.

Yes that's what I fear.. I pay for the NY Times, Ars Technica, and Geekzone, but like you I think I'm the exception.

There has been some interesting movement with Press Patron in New Zealand but I imagine that is not generating much cash for the outlets.

allan

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#2049921 5-Jul-2018 16:06

wellygary:

howdystranger:

Hi all,

This is a rather under-cooked idea, but I've been getting frustrated that there's no way to pay for digital local news. I live in Wellington and my only option is to subscribe to the paper Dom Post (doesn't work as I'm in an apartment building, and most of it is stale by the time it's delivered), or look at their website covered with ads. Not that much of the Dom Post is actually focused on Wellington news either...

I've been wondering if there could be a market for local news (no national news) , with regular newsletters summarising what's been happening. Would you pay $10 or $15 a month for such a service?

You can get the Dompost as a digital edition via pressreader for $25 a month, which is an exact replica of the printed version,(no website ads) (and should have been promoted by Fairfax years ago..)

http://fairfaxmedia.newspaperdirect.com/epaper/helpandsupport.aspx?subpage=PressdisplaySubscriptionPlans#10

If you've got a tablet is actually not a bad way to read it,

Why don't you just join the library? It's free: http://www.wcl.govt.nz/blog/index.php/2012/02/23/reading-newspapers-online-with-pressdisplay-its-just-like-browsing-the-paper-copy/

howdystranger

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#2049922 5-Jul-2018 16:08

Wheelbarrow01:

When you say local news, do you mean "Mrs O'Leary's cat has been found safe and well after being missing for 3 days" or do you mean actual news (sport, local politics etc) from across the Wellington region? And where will this news come from - your own roving reporters? Or will you just repackage the regional news pages from the Stuff website?

Good question and gets to the heart of it. Ultimately I'm envisaging actual news, but how that is collected is uncertain. I could do it myself (with no journalism qualifications lol), get students, etc. Or I was thinking I could approach an established media outlet and see if they'd be willing to do a revenue sharing agreement (where they get the vast bulk of the revenue in exchange for republication of material). In the short term I was thinking I could start blogging local news like Kiwiblog, providing a light level of commentary and test appetite.

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howdystranger

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#2049923 5-Jul-2018 16:09

wellygary:

howdystranger:

Hi all,

This is a rather under-cooked idea, but I've been getting frustrated that there's no way to pay for digital local news. I live in Wellington and my only option is to subscribe to the paper Dom Post (doesn't work as I'm in an apartment building, and most of it is stale by the time it's delivered), or look at their website covered with ads. Not that much of the Dom Post is actually focused on Wellington news either...

I've been wondering if there could be a market for local news (no national news) , with regular newsletters summarising what's been happening. Would you pay $10 or $15 a month for such a service?

You can get the Dompost as a digital edition via pressreader for $25 a month, which is an exact replica of the printed version,(no website ads) (and should have been promoted by Fairfax years ago..)

http://fairfaxmedia.newspaperdirect.com/epaper/helpandsupport.aspx?subpage=PressdisplaySubscriptionPlans#10

If you've got a tablet is actually not a bad way to read it,

I find press reader a bit too clunky personally. I like to read news on my phone and I imagine many people are the same.

gzt

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#2049934 5-Jul-2018 16:26

Ultimately this is likely to go the way of Facebook and Neighborly and things like that. Stuff have a Neighborly partnership I believe.

howdystranger

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#2049935 5-Jul-2018 16:28

gzt: Ultimately this is likely to go the way of Facebook and Neighborly and things like that. Stuff have a Neighborly partnership I believe.

Yes I'm pretty sure Stuff owns 100% of Neighbourly

Hammerer

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#2049942 5-Jul-2018 16:34

howdystranger:

I've been wondering if there could be a market for local news (no national news) , with regular newsletters summarising what's been happening. Would you pay $10 or $15 a month for such a service?

I would. I have spent about $400 this way in the past 18 months so about $20 a month. But I haven't got good value when it comes to local Wellington news or even national news.

Local topics are being replaced by national. Too many of the articles in my free community newspaper are the same as the DomPost and are generally published nationally.

The quality of local and national content is often worse. For example, our local "community" newspaper appears to be reducing the content that relates to controversy in local politics. Recently they glossed over a $2 million direct loss on the purchase and sale of a commercial property by the city council. There are other examples.

Incidentally, the DomPost's smaller paper format is great but the amount of content appears to have decreased. Maybe I've formed that impression from the lower quality of content.

Payment systems don't work very well. I've started many subs to NZ "news" but withdrawn from all of them because of annoying problems: All have been relatively unresponsive to requests and suggestions; Newsroom didn't do it properly in the rush to get started; Webpass beta developed too slowly and didn't provide me with any feedback on what my money went to; and so on.

Websites need to rethink how they interact with people.One example is from Neighbourly which is a free site but wants to prevent anonymous browsing of local news. That's not very neighbourly from my point of view. I am prepared to pay but they should make it easier to see the news.

P.S. If I want to read "The Hutt News" online then I am forced to use Neighbourly although I can see the individual articles on the "Hutt News" page at Stuff.

alasta

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#2049943 5-Jul-2018 16:37

I currently pay a monthly crowdfunding contribution of $5 to each of Newsroom and The Spinoff for national news and commentary. For community news I am happy with the Cook Strait News which lands in my mailbox each week and costs nothing.

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howdystranger

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#2049976 5-Jul-2018 16:53

alasta:

I currently pay a monthly crowdfunding contribution of $5 to each of Newsroom and The Spinoff for national news and commentary. For community news I am happy with the Cook Strait News which lands in my mailbox each week and costs nothing.

Yes I forgot to add that I likewise give a little bit to the Spinoff, Scoop, Public Address, and Newsroom through Press Patron. Nice and easy.

UHD

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#2050223 6-Jul-2018 00:11

alasta:

I currently pay a monthly crowdfunding contribution of $5 to The Spinoff.

Good gracious that is a waste of money.

surfisup1000

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#2050226 6-Jul-2018 00:36

Tauranga has this ...

www.sunlive.co.nz

Isn't there something like this in Wellington?

Quinny

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#2050281 6-Jul-2018 09:19

No, I would not. Mainly because news now is just a repost of foreign click bait as opposed to a real journalist who investigates a topic and reports in an unbiased manner. Even locally by city there is the same issue. Click any breaking news report and all they have done is scour facebook and listed the results as "news". No respect left for the so-called profession. I've seen articles take days to have basic fact errors corrected or where 10 minutes of good research would give a better topic understanding.

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