Dead Man

Die NYT wird ihr TimesSelect Programm – alles was nur kostenpflichtig zugänglich war – droppen. Guter Anlass für Scott Karp für eine recht überzeugende warum-paid-content-dem-untergang-geweiht-ist Analyse.

The ability to charge for content in non-digital media like newspapers, magazines, and cable TV was based on a limited supply of content and monopoly control of distribution. The web and digital media have generated an overabundance of content — not just a spike in high-quality content but, more disruptively, and even larger spike in “pretty good” or “good enough” content. The web has of course utterly destroyed destroyed distribution monopolies. Anyone can create and distribute content on a meaningful scale.
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The new economics of media make charging for content nearly impossible because there is always someone else producing similar content for free — even if the free content isn’t “as good as” the paid content by some meaningful metric, it doesn’t matter because there’s so much content of at least proximate quality that the paid content provider has virtually no pricing power. As smart, talented, and insightful as the New York Times columnists behind the paid wall are, the are too many other smart, talented, insightful commentators publishing their thoughts on the web for free.
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Blogs have played the most disruptive role in the devaluation of text content because many bloggers have content “business models” based on personal branding.

An anderer Baustelle hat McKinsey bzgl. des Medienkonsumverhaltens herumgeforscht und ein promiskuitives Verhalten diagnostiziert wobei es der deutlichen Mehrheit nicht besonders um Qualität geht (sprich: es besteht noch Hoffnung für die Journaille).

When asked to explain which sources of news were most useful, respondents expressed a preference for those offering convenience, comprehensiveness, or timeliness rather than quality. Specifically, they were far more likely to consider a news source useful because it “is the easiest way to get news,” “covers the most topics,” or makes it “easy to get news whenever I want it” than because it has the most accurate content or the deepest analysis