NYT to decide on how to charge for online content

My point was that you continue to push the home delivery (subscription) while also offering the subscriber access to the online content.

Sure, it's going to cost more to produce original online content. It means people have to work harder to secure subscribers, adertising and other sources of revenue.

Look at all the contests run by ESPN and Yahoo!, etc. Those are free to the viewer, but certainly it costs money to maintain servers and create the contests (Bracket Busters, etc).

Why can't a metro newspaper do the same, but on a smaller scale? Insurance for a perfect bracket doesn't cost much...and you'd certainly attract viewers, who might find something else they are interested in on the site.

What is the alternative? Shut down the newspapers because they aren't generating enough revenue? Cut staff to save money?

It's sink or swim. It isn't going to be easy, but if people don't adapt there are going to be a lot more English teachers available to substitute at the local schools.

 

A bracket contest involves paying a couple of programmers and generates 10s of millions of page views. That's not quite the same scale as newspapers are looking at. Outside of bandwidth, the costs of running a bracket program are the same for ESPN as they are for a newspaper, and the newspaper has much less to gain.

You can't just "work harder" to make up the kind of revenue gap you are looking at here. Look around at the web, and tell me how many web sites are making money with full-time, paid content-generating staff and advertising-only for revenue. It doesn't work.

Not having a better alternative doesn't mean the universe will suddenly bend to our will and make ideas that won't work suddenly become viable.

The only way newspapers make money on the web is by adding as few costs to their regular, day-to-day operations as possible. That means just shoveling up the print product onto the web. Anything else makes no sense in a cost-benefit analysis.

 

A bracket contest was just an example of one of the million ideas that could be tried, not a resolution to the newspaper industries woes.

Back in my corner...

 

It's just the perception that the newspaper industry isn't trying things that bothers me. Newspapers embraced the web wholeheartedly, and tried every flavor-of-the-month idea that came along. It's not a lack of ideas that got them here.

 

I'm not sure I agree that the newspapers embraced the web wholeheartedly.

I've seen some newspaper sites that interested me and others that a third grader could have, and probably did, create.

Simply adding your print content to your online site isn't the answer. That's what I see out of too many newspapers.

What have newspapers done to become THE local online destination for news, entertainment, sports, classifieds, etc.? That's the million dollar question.

Maybe newspapers have to think outside the box and partner with other online experts for their sports, news, entertainment, etc., coverage. Maybe it's time to "marry" a TV or radio station.

I have perused these forums for a while now and I used to learn a lot. Now, all I read is how bloggers have ruined newspapers and there is no solution to the problem. It's disappointing.

Back to the bracket contest....I run a contest every year for about 100 friends. I bought some software online for about $40 (TurboTourney). I know some HTML but no PERL or whatever scripting language the software uses, and I'm able to set the tournament up online to do everything it needs to do to process entries, add results and tabulate the standings.

Again, where there's a will there's a way. You don't have to pay programmers thousands of dollars to set something up. Get creative...find unique ways to draw in subscribers, visitors and advertisers/partners.

If it was easy, we probably wouldn't be here in the first place.

 

Not really. I think most people who make this statement do not read the NYT. They have reporters stationed in places where other news organizations don't. They have editors conceptualizing story ideas that are unique approaches to breaking news. Even in cases where, for instance, the NYT covers a local story in Seattle, the story is meant not only for a national audience but a national audience of NYT readers.

 

You are right, I don't read the New York Times.

I wasn't trying to offend the NYT, simply making the point that news is available elsewhere.

And herein lies the problem.

 

The solution is to stop relying on news that is easily available elsewhere.

 

I completely agree that newspapers have to be more creative with their online content. Make it attractive and worthwhile to the reader. Video, podcasts, photo slideshows ... there's a lot that can be done.

 

And that's where we disagree. In terms of cost to create that content vs. revenue gained from increased hits, that's a losing proposition for newspapers.

 

Does anyone have any resources of what percentage subscriptions usually contribute to the overall revenue of a newspaper?

 

It could be that the costs are too high. It could be mismanagement. It could be a lack of creativity.

I don't know the answer for every individual newspaper. But, I can tell you that putting out a crap product will result in crap results.

Are newspaper employees going to be asked to do more for and with less? Most definitely.

Again, it comes down to sink or swim. You find a way to make it work...just like any other industry/business that finds itself in trouble.

From what I've seen, there hasn't been enough creativity on the part of newspapers to make a difference online. To me, it's the same old, same old with each website I've seen.

I did see a preps football website created by several newspapers...it provided a ton of original content, schedules, rosters, statistics, etc. I haven't visited the site in a while, and I'll try and look it up again, but I can't remember any advertising to speak of.

The point is, the papers didn't wait for someone else to do it...they provided something that isn't readily available anywhere else. They asked their current staff to do more...video, more stories, etc. Now, it's up to them to keep it going and generate advertising revenue and other partners.

That's swimming. Putting up a Web site designed by a 10th grader is sinking.