The paywalls are coming

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#1041040 9-May-2014 19:13

mattwnz:
alasta:
old3eyes: I wonder if the bean counters at TVNZ and Mediaworks are trying to figure out how to make the 6.00PM news go behind a paywall ... Wait Kill it on FTA and only have it on Sky..

Free to air broadcasters must be bleeding revenue as a result of people using PVRs to skip ads, pirating TV shows from overseas, and simply turning the TV off in favour of other online media. I wouldn't be surprised to see them radically change their business model over the coming years.

They have already begun changing. You will notice that some of their premium programs are already being shown on TVNZ on demand in advance of them appearing on TV. So I suspect that in the near future, that this will be a service they will charge for, and if you want to watch free, you will have to wait for it to be shown on TV. TVNZ on demand I recall did used to be a pay for service for some things, but probably due to poor uptake, they made it free. But these things can't be free forever.

Before I would pay for On Demand it will have to be in HD with DD5.1 sound and I can play it on something I already have rather than have to buy new hardware..

Regards,

Old3eyes

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MikeB4

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#1041043 9-May-2014 19:16

old3eyes:
KiwiNZ:
Geektastic:
WyleECoyoteNZ: New to this country, but has been like this in the UK for at least 1 news site for quite a while.

The Times Online (http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/) has Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson as a column writer. Before this content used to be free to the reader, but now this requires a login account, and a fee associated with that

The headlines look to be open access, however anything else looks to require a login account.

True.

However the Times has excellent journalism - something no NZ paper has. The headline "Cat Up A Tree Saved In Dunedin" has yet to appear in the Times...!

To be honest, we could easily bin ALL the NZ papers and replace them with one national one that came out once a week and be no worse off.

Ours do human interest stories as opposed to phone bugging etc

You mean like todays Herald banner "Shorty Street star gets death threats"??

Auckland headlines don't count :p

Fred99

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#1041102 9-May-2014 20:30

KiwiNZ: Before electronic media we paid for news inclusive of Advertising, it was called the Newspaper subscription or cover charge. It kinda baffles me that many think just because its on the interwebz it should be free.

Before electronic media, print media had massive cost for physical materials, printing, distribution and delivery, but still managed to do it for a pittance (and in some case free).
So now those costs are mainly eliminated, it baffles me that after a couple of decades where what has happened should have been seen to be inevitable, the (newsprint) media industry wants to charge exorbitant prices for web delivery - to try to recover the reduced advertising revenue they receive for print delivery. IMO they are signing their own death warrant.

MikeB4

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#1041106 9-May-2014 20:39

Fred99:
KiwiNZ: Before electronic media we paid for news inclusive of Advertising, it was called the Newspaper subscription or cover charge. It kinda baffles me that many think just because its on the interwebz it should be free.

Before electronic media, print media had massive cost for physical materials, printing, distribution and delivery, but still managed to do it for a pittance (and in some case free).
So now those costs are mainly eliminated, it baffles me that after a couple of decades where what has happened should have been seen to be inevitable, the (newsprint) media industry wants to charge exorbitant prices for web delivery - to try to recover the reduced advertising revenue they receive for print delivery. IMO they are signing their own death warrant.

The cover charge barely covered the circulation costs. Delivering the web versions still has significant costs which they have a right to recoup, they are businesses not charities.

psychnurse

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#1041113 9-May-2014 20:47

Best they give paper subscribers free access to their content!

alasta

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#1041155 9-May-2014 22:08

I have subscribed to The Listener online for some time now and I find that the content is worth the $140 per year that I pay, although I would like to see a bigger price difference between the print and online subscriptions given the difference in the cost of providing the service.

As for The Herald and Stuff I have up on them a few years ago, so as far as I'm concerned they're not even worth paying $0 for!

alasta

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#1041156 9-May-2014 22:11

mattwnz: It is ironic that one newspaper is are now concentrating on radio, and radio seems like a growth industry over both newspapers and tv.

It's interesting that The Radio Network, which is part owned by APN, has had a major rejuvenation recently. I wonder if APN sees more revenue potential in that compared with The Herald?

Geektastic

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#1041199 9-May-2014 23:13

KiwiNZ:
Geektastic:
WyleECoyoteNZ: New to this country, but has been like this in the UK for at least 1 news site for quite a while.

The Times Online (http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/) has Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson as a column writer. Before this content used to be free to the reader, but now this requires a login account, and a fee associated with that

The headlines look to be open access, however anything else looks to require a login account.

True.

However the Times has excellent journalism - something no NZ paper has. The headline "Cat Up A Tree Saved In Dunedin" has yet to appear in the Times...!

To be honest, we could easily bin ALL the NZ papers and replace them with one national one that came out once a week and be no worse off.

Ours do human interest stories as opposed to phone bugging etc

They are certainly of precisely zero interest to this human....

mattwnz

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#1041209 10-May-2014 00:11

alasta:
mattwnz: It is ironic that one newspaper is are now concentrating on radio, and radio seems like a growth industry over both newspapers and tv.

It's interesting that The Radio Network, which is part owned by APN, has had a major rejuvenation recently. I wonder if APN sees more revenue potential in that compared with The Herald?

I think so. The thing about radio, is that so many people listen to it in the mornings over breakfast, and when driving, that it is something that has a long life.

kiwitrc

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#1041236 10-May-2014 07:19

WyleECoyoteNZ: New to this country, but has been like this in the UK for at least 1 news site for quite a while.

The Times Online (http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/) has Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson as a column writer. Before this content used to be free to the reader, but now this requires a login account, and a fee associated with that

The headlines look to be open access, however anything else looks to require a login account.

Welcome :)

JimmyH

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#1041299 10-May-2014 12:08

I would pay for decent content and news. That means I could probably be persuaded to pay for the Telegraph, and I already have access to the paid version of the Financial Times. Both of these are excellent.

Stuff and the Herald, on the other hand, are a total joke. Virtually no news, a welter of useless "human interest" pap and opinions from nobodies, and content scooped up cheaply on syndication that is days out of date. "All blacks cat has Kidney Stone" is the level of story they consider news.

I rarely bother with them for free. They now expect me to pay for access - you have got to be joking!

DarthKermit

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#1041318 10-May-2014 13:22

I think we should start compiling a list of the dumbest news headlines on Stuff & The Herald sites.

Whatifthespacekeyhadneverbeeninvented?

Kyanar

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#1041324 10-May-2014 14:37

alasta:
mattwnz: It is ironic that one newspaper is are now concentrating on radio, and radio seems like a growth industry over both newspapers and tv.

It's interesting that The Radio Network, which is part owned by APN, has had a major rejuvenation recently. I wonder if APN sees more revenue potential in that compared with The Herald?

Well, they did just put the person who rejuvenated The Radio Network in charge of APN's entire NZ division, including the Herald, and she's the person planning on this paywall. One would hope she's got more plans than "charge moneys!"

Gilco2

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#1041370 10-May-2014 16:03

for 40 years I have had a subscription to the NZherald. No way will I be paying again to look at their online content

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Technofreak

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#1041416 10-May-2014 17:40

KiwiNZ: Before electronic media we paid for news inclusive of Advertising, it was called the Newspaper subscription or cover charge. It kinda baffles me that many think just because its on the interwebz it should be free.

Does anyone really think a newspaper subscription paid the wages of the reporters? It probably barely covers the delivery and cost of the paper it's printed on. There's plenty of free community papers in the market place that survive on advertising alone.

There's no delivery cost or paper cost on the web. Sure there's a cost to running the website but there is no printing press needed to print the content so I'd say swings and round a bouts there so far as costs go, The content is being created whether or not it goes on the website or into a physical paper so swings and round a bouts again.

With the standard of reporting we get with most news sites and I definitely include NZHerald and Stuff in this group there's no way I'd bother with paying for access.

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