No Wonder the Newspaper Industry is in Trouble
With mind-numbingly stupid quotes like this, from Newspaper ‘consultant’ John Morton: "A business model that depends on making money with newspapers on
newsprint and giving away a lot of the same information for free on the
Internet in the long-run isn’t going to work."
Newspapers have never made money on circulation. Never in their history. There is nothing wrong with relying on advertising. The nominal price on the front goes mainly to the newstands and scrapes back a slice of the money needed to buy and print on paper. I am talking miniscule when compared to the total cost of paper.
In fact if you divided technology and hosting costs / paid content you would get about the same ratio as paper & printing / subscription prices.
There is absolutely no sense in charging for news. If that is the best idea that newspapers can come up with to get themselves out of the turmoil they are now in, then the fat lady may as well start warming her vocal chords.
