Can Newspapers Charge?

April 8th, 2009

The New York Times reported today that many newspapers are going to begin charging.

In their current form, most newspapers (ones which report generally, rather than on specific topics) will find it difficult to charge for online subscriptions. General news is a commodity — you can get it almost anywhere.

Some argue that this can change, but I don’t think so. We don’t value general news very much because of its ubiquity.

So how can newspapers survive?

“The question now is whether that common denominator approach can work online,” Mr. Honack said. He says he thinks it will require treating the audience and the products as a series of niches, and tailoring the offering to the customer. “You have to find out what part of your product you can get them to come back for.”

That is the key. Newspapers will not survive by charging subscriptions for access to the day’s current events. Not enough people will pay for it.1

Good newspapers will survive by diving into the details, and becoming really good at reporting and providing analysis on certain topics. Technology, business, politics, international affairs, and every imaginable sub-topic. Papers should pick one and become authorities on it, the authority to read on a topic. People will pay for that.

  1. If you are thinking: Well, people pay for subscriptions to newspapers, why wouldn’t they online? Well, first, newspaper circulation is declining, but more importantly I think they’re fundamentally different. People read newspapers as a form of ritual and enjoyment — it is quite nice to sit down each morning and read the newspaper, in a way that reading on a computer isn’t. People (from my experience) tend to read news online to get the headlines, rather than get the details. People don’t want to pay for headlines. [↩]