– The free lunch is over

News publishers are sick of picking up the tab for readers and financing newsrooms to churn out stories offered for free on the web. They’ve persisted till now, deceived by brown cardigan dogma about advertising returns, which have so far failed to eventuate. Charging for content is the only choice. But it’s been tried before and people didn’t like it and clicked on other news outlets still hoping for the great online advertising windfall. Read more…

– Honesty is always the best policy

When something goes wrong the natural commercial instinct to keep it quiet kicks in. No point in besmirching a carefully managed reputation.

Often, however, businesses don’t have the luxury of selective silence.

It’s hard dodging tough questions, particularly when a seasoned hack acting on a tip-off is on the other end of the phone. Read more…

– Worth doing, but no news guarantee

Most business involves selling a scarce resource. Generally, the business offering is enriched or cheapened by availability. Lots of similar stuff and prices drop, and vice versa. Seasonal produce is a good example of this tipping scale

Strange to some it may seem, but the business of news follows the same rules. Value of the news product rises when the publisher leads the news or reports it exclusively.

Conversely, ‘news’ is largely valueless when someone else has reported it.

A media release by nature is a statement released by a self-interested party to a number of media outlets. Read more…