NYT Weighs in on Fees for Media Sites
Posted on : 12-28-2009 | By : Tom | In : News, Philosophy
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The New York Times talks about media outlets trying to prepare for charging fees for their content. It’s an interesting article that certainly relates to the current thinking in publishing on the web – comics and otherwise.
One interesting quote is that “most industry experts agree, entertainment will be easier to charge for than news.” Because what entertainment offers is unique enough on a case by case basis. Whereas with the news, you have thousands of outlets reporting the same stuff in general terms. Driving this discussion is the fact that the advertising industry has suffered more in recent years than in any other time in history.
The “free content supported by advertising” model on its own doesn’t quite cut it anymore for a lot of media outlets – especially the big ones. There’s plenty of skepticism on whether fees can be pulled off, however. Free content will always be one click away. Can they make their content valuable enough to have people pay? Currently the Wall Street Journal has some success with fees. They are definitely not your run-of-the-mill news outlet.
For those of us in independent comic publishing, advertising has not seemed to be a big source of income. While it seems to be a nice additional stream of revenue for some, it seems that it’s really the sale of books and related merchandise that drives those who find success.
Here at Wishtales we know that independent publishing can succeed with a mix of pay and free content. Marooned made a very modest profit selling only around 50 books using a high cost print-on-demand process. Obviously the book sales were driven by a free comic. But the book offers material that is *not* free or available on the web. Better success lies in bringing our printing costs down and sales up. Only time will tell how that will go.
In the meantime, it will be interesting to see what happens in the next couple years, particularly with sites like Hulu. Will the bigger media outlets successfully charge fees – any kind of fees – for their services? Time will tell, but there apparently some big decisions coming up this year.
I believe charging fees will be contagious. When a couple of outlets begin charging for content, the ones offering free content may take it as permission to charge as well. Take a look at Webcomics.com which has suddenly decided to charge $30 a year for largely user-generated content that used to be free. Will their audience pony up?
Things will shake out because there is only so much money to go around. People may pay for the Wall Street Journal because where else can you get that content? But if Mediocre Webcomic #532 wants to start charging a fee, I imagine his viewership will drop to somewhere around zero. Of course, that will be a good learning opportunity, too.
On the plus side, if every website begins charging for content, we’ll all probably spend a lot less time online. Think of all we could do with those wasted hours!
Totally agree. The webcomics.com thing took me by surprise. There’s a lot of interesting discussion about it. Will be real interested to see where it goes.
I personally think it is a misstep. 30 dollars is a lot for what you get (which frankly, isn’t all that clear either) and the closed off even the forums.
There are so many other ways he could have done things. But it’s his site to try and make work. We’ll see how it goes.
Micropayments are the answer to this. As soon as it becomes as easy as clicking a button and paypal is auto-charged, it’s all over.
Comic artists can take advantage of this I think. The main comic (the main draw) of the site must ALWAYS be free. It’s how you build a readership, it is how you build your name, it is how you build good will.
But what about offering a downloadable minicomic with some back story on a particular character for 2 bucks? If you DON’T buy it, your not missing anything, but if you DO buy it, your getting a little more. It’s perfect for a Fan of your work, and at 2 bucks, who wouldn’t jump on that?
2010 will be an interesting year for comics. No doubt about it.
The thing about micropayments is people have been talking about it forever – a long time. But it hasn’t happened yet. It seems to be one of those ideas that sounds great, but when you go to implement it – it’s next to impossible.
Imagine having a system that allows you to pay for both Robot Beach and The NYT – who builds it? How do people get paid? We’re talking *small* transactions here – maybe cents. It becomes very difficult.
But I agree, this year is going to be interesting.
This seems a real step backwards for me. Does anyone remember some ten-fifteen odd years ago, when folks began to catch onto this internet thingy, some websites charged for premium content?
I must be an idealist to think that the free online content model will yield revenue in print and merchandise.
Attracting an audience, then demanding a fee to keep on using the service betrays that audience.