Tag news

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Random Rant: Let The New Cycle Of The News Business Begins

May 9, 11 8:41 PM

From reading the article “For News Sites, Google Is the Past and Facebook Is the Future” on Gigaom, I can see why news sites are having problem of attracting repeat visitors.  In the old days, information was not as proliferative as today, therefore people back then preferred to stick to only the few news sites that they had invested their trust in.  Nowadays, news are so abundant that it matter little for people to choose one news site over another.  Still, there are people preferred only few major news sites for their news diet, but even these people are probably noticing that they can always get some news or maybe even the same news on hundreds of other news sites.

The whole situation is rather messy and ugly, and it’s a dilemma for pay news sites.  To think of it, people have so many more choices that news sites are no longer in a more powerful position as they had been before in term of dictating what people should read, because people can actually read everything and everything evermore.  While we’re speaking, who know how many more news sites, local or not, are just starting to make waves into this traditional business.

Another thing, some people may not care so much for news quality as long they get something to read about each day, but some do.  The more news sites are around and the more accesses people can have to these news sites in term of not having to pay a great cost to obtain news, then the big picture of the question “Why there are so many variations of how people prefer to take their news diet?” — becomes evermore clear that nothing is ever going to be the same for news business.

Perhaps, all in all, it’s a good thing for a new cycle to begin, and when I refer to a new cycle, I mean a whole new ecosystem of news business for Darwinism to feed on.  Darwinism in news business of today will probably be very effective, and it’s essential for everyone whether each of us has an interest or not in how news business develops as we moving forward, because only the best and the strong survive either through a paid platform or a free platform (i.e., free news or paid news), and by this extension it allows the people who care most for quality news to get the best news and the news that matter most.

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Out Of Necessities, Pay Web Content Model May Be A Blessing

Mar 17, 11 12:48 PM

In the past I’d believed contents on the Internet supposed to be forever FREE!  Recently, New York Times has decided they’re going to make people pay for their contents.  If you ask me now about what I think on the subject of premium contents such as New York Times’ contents can no longer be FREE?  How about just any content on the web will begin to charge for a fee as following New York Times model?  I’ve to say I’ve a very mix feeling!

As a blog owner, and so I understand somewhat — not expertly — about the process of creating contents.  New York Times and other big players in contents are with capability to churn out unique contents that bloggers like me can’t.  This is why I think I have underestimated the pay model of Web contents in the pasts.  I can’t say I can predict the future of the pay model of Web contents, because I’m not the Oracle.  Nonetheless, I think more people will appreciate the pay model of Web contents if in fact the contents that are going to be paid for cannot be found anywhere else easily (i.e., on websites with free contents).

Few more last words on this subject, I think New York Times has done the right thing, because it’s a company that needs to support its employees.  For a blogger like me, it’s only one mouth to worry about, and so blog owners cannot be compared to the content creators such as New York Times in term of having how many mouths to feed!  My past viewpoints obviously stressed on free contents, but my current viewpoint supports both pay Web content model and free Web content model — because each model works best for the situations that demand it.

Source:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/17/new-york-times-launches-p_n_837053.html

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