The paywall is history: media must explore new revenue models

Despite all the dire news about the state of the newspaper industry, we are actually in the middle of a Golden Age for news consumers who can surf the net, use search engines, access the best stories from around the world, and be able to comment, interact and form communities. Journalism plays an indispensable role in our demo­cracy, but it’s important to remember that the future of journalism is not ­dependent on the future of newspapers.

Despite all the dire news about the state of the newspaper industry, we are actually in the middle of a Golden Age for news consumers who can surf the net, use search engines, access the best stories from around the world, and be able to comment, interact and form communities. Journalism plays an indispensable role in our demo­cracy, but it’s important to remember that the future of journalism is not ­dependent on the future of newspapers.The great upheaval the news industry is going through is the result of a perfect storm of transformative technology, the advent of sites such as Craigslist, dramatic changes in consumer habits, and the dire impact the economic crisis has had on advertising. And there is no question that, as the industry moves forward and we figure out the new rules of the road, there needs to be a great deal of experimentation with new revenue models. “We are now in the midst of an epochal debate over the value of content,” said the News Corporation chairman, Rupert Murdoch, last week, “and it is clear to many newspapers that the current model is malfunctioning.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/may/11/newspapers-web-media-pay-wall

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