[Upd-discuss] Wired on BBC Creative Archive

[jbsoufron@free.fr]

> Nearly all newspaper use this kind of idea: articles free for a few 
> days, then blocked to be payed after a delay. The daily
> newspaper I work for (Liberation in Paris) use exactly that. That can 
> seem strange: in fact, the real added value of  a newspaper
> is made out of fresh news and the hability to organize news. Those two 
> kinds of added value could be, in theory, better "extracted"
> with the model offered by Richard: articles would be sold the first day 
> (for a daily newspaper, the first month for a monthly...) and then
> totally free after this delay. The newspaper could then earn more money 
> from its articles when they are published and could even sell
> the archives when they are re organized for special issues, for instance.

I got your point, but what if someone like me organise articles by himself with 
a good classification on his hd, or by using a classification software like 
greenstone? 

Of course, I don't think everybody can do it and the real added value is still 
there for classifying so my point is probably meaningless :)
 
> But the problem is advertising. Lots of newspapers are trying to compete 
> with "TV model" on the Web: they give away their news the first days
> in order to get as many readers as possible and as many ads as 
> possible... And they imagine that it's impossible to get ads on archives.
> 
> In fact, the best way to try to be nice to Richard AND to let the 
> newspapers earn money from the Web would be to put ads on free archives 
> pages,

I have to add that if only one newspaper gives away well classified news for 
free, that will completely annihilate any try from other newspaper to make 
people pay for these fresh news. 

Free news and good classification, that's typically what has driven me from the 
other french newspaper to Liberation (figaro were badly organized and le monde 
was trying to sell the news). 

> and to hope that it will give enough money back... I don't know if any 
> newspaper has always try that solution.

It is really strange, indeed. 

I don't get why they could not make money with ads placed on free archives 
pages. But I believe that the republican magazine "national review" is 
precisely following that business model (free news and free archives with ads 
everywhere). Maybe they could tell us more about it.

> 
> Florent LATRIVE
> 
> 
> jbsoufron@free.fr wrote:
> 
> >As for myself, I simply save the article on my hd in html, then I make a
> link 
> >from my browser to the file in my hd... 
> >
> >simple... 
> >
> >Then I can enjoy the article as long as I want and I can even send it to 
> >friends or copy/paste it when I write an article! 
> >
> >I don't know if your business model has any cash value but as it is quite 
> >annoying to users, you should check for it carefully before changing
> anything 
> >to what your customers are used to.
> >
> >
> >
> >Quoting Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>:
> >
> >  
> >
> >>    My company has long provided one of their key publications on the web
> >>    for free, and is considering charging for it. They are looking at the
> >>    NYT model with a difference - articles less than a week old are free,
> >>    articles more than x years old are free, anything else is subscription
> >>    only.
> >>
> >>It is quite unfortunate when newspapers do this.  I used to make many
> >>links to articles from The Independent, but now I never do, because I
> >>know the articles will become inaccessible after a week or so.
> >>
> >>It would be much better to charge for access to the latest articles
> >>and provide free access once they are a week old.  Then the articles
> >>would be useful to link to after just a week.
> >>
> >>_______________________________________________
> >>Upd-discuss mailing list
> >>Upd-discuss@lists.essential.org
> >>http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/upd-discuss
> >>
> >>    
> >>
> >
> >
> >_______________________________________________
> >Upd-discuss mailing list
> >Upd-discuss@lists.essential.org
> >http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/upd-discuss
> >
> >  
> >
> _______________________________________________
> Upd-discuss mailing list
> Upd-discuss@lists.essential.org
> http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/upd-discuss
>