Saturday 8 August 2009

FT: 'Rivals sceptical on Murdoch's pay wall plan'

A report by Financial Times' correspondents in London, New York and Paris says rivals are sceptical of Rupert Murodch's plan to charge for online news on all his newspapers' websites.
The FT says: "rivals expressed doubts that erecting pay walls around everything from Fox News to the Papua New Guinea Post-Courier would trigger copycat moves."
Trinity Mirror chief executive Sly Bailey is quoted saying: “I don’t think this is about what Rupert Murdoch wants. It’s about what the consumer is prepared to pay for. And why would you pay when you can get the same thing somewhere else for free?”
“Murdoch is either going to make the market or steer a lot of users our way,” another UK newspaper manager said.
The New York Times said News Corp’s move would not affect its own consideration of metered access models, but Nicolas Beytout, chief executive of Les Echos, the French business daily, said it would reinforce those who favour paid-for content.
You can read the story for free on FT.Com but for how long? The Financial Times is one of the few papers that has been successful in charging for content and is likely to extend its pay wall.

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