Starting next year, the 54 papers in the MediaNews Group chain - including nine papers in Southern California - will begin charging readers for access to some online content. That's according to an interview MediaNews chairman Dean Singleton gave to KSL Channel 5 in Salt Lake City.The details of what would go behind the pay wall remain sketchy. Singleton said sport, "hyperlocal" features and entertainment would be likely candidates for a subscription site, while breaking news would remain free to all readers. Subscribers to the printed newspaper would have access to everything online at no extra charge.
Said Singleton:
"When you give it away for free, it has no value. When you begin charging for it, it has some value."In May, Singleton and MediaNews president Jody Lodovic released a memo that outlined their concept for an online subscription service. They contemplated dividing content between a free "news.com" site with breaking news and some user-generated content, and a subscriber-only "newspaper.com" site with in-depth features and specialized content.
The memo also left open the possibility that MediaNews would stop short of charging readers and instead require them to register. From the May memo:
We are not trying to invent new premium products, but instead tell our existing print readers that what they are buying has real value, and to our online audience (who don't buy the print edition), that if you want access to all online content, you are going to have to register, and/or pay.
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35 comments:
Memo to Lean Dean. When you charge people in Long Beach for local stories in San Bernardino, it has no local value. Turning 9 papers into the same paper devalued your chain the minute you devised that genious idea.
it only has value if it is worth something to the user...your products aren't and won't be. quit preaching from the pulpit and talk to some of your users. it shouldn't take long. as a matter of fact, i would like to see you place an ad using your tools like a customer does.
i sure wish i could sell this fiasco short.
i can see it now, all your managers scurrying around with new reports to tell you how wonderful the new venture is doing.
sgvn already charges for "print edition" online..
What about using the system that musicians do online. Pay what you think it's worth.
um, a day late on this. plus, who wants to buy a paper in woodland hills and get san gabe stories. they lost their value once you made them all cookie cutter version with just a different mast and flag.
good grief!! WHY would anyone pay for something they don't even want for free. AND you have decimated these LANG papers so much.
First, Dean get a new updated photo. Second, it has no value because it has no value. You can put a price on dog crap and it still won't sell. A lot of free items have value, ask the people who need help with their groceries each month who get it from the food banks. Exactly what are you going to put online that I can't get elsewhere, better and free? You are making statements that are absured.
There are still many hardworking reporters and editors out there in LANG and elsewhere working amid very tough circumstances who are producing work that is of value. Is charging for it better for the company than giving it away for free? Who knows. Does Woodland Hills content have much value to San Bernardino readers? Probably not. But assuming they continue to operate at their current wafer-thin staffing levels, I'm not sure this is the dumbest idea they've ever come up with. May work for bigger and better papers even if not for LANG. But who really knows...
Dino, dino, dino. You got rid of all your good writers. Now you want people to pay for the crap the ones left are turning out?
Sorry, Dino. It won't fly.
I know. It won't fly and people won't pay for it. Not to slight anyone who works in the industry, but, even when the paper was better than it is today, who would pay for stuff they can get elsewhere for free. The object is to build a product someone is willing to pay for because it has value. Forget the crap of being in San Gabriel and not paying for stuff from Woodland Hills, they can't find much out in their own back yard. Of course, San Gabriel is the flagship.
Who'd want to pay for something with spelling mistakes, factual errors and uneducated comments like all the LANG papers have EACH and every day. Amazing that the remaining ghosts of staffs don't at least have REAL editors who can correct high school-type mistakes. I'd pay just to have a laugh at all those mistakes. LOL Lean-Dean-oh. ~ ;)
in order to provide a service people want, you have to have something to offer. and lang doesn't anymore. all the talent is gone. just a handful of writers left. how are they going to "provide" this hyper local stuff then? d'oh.
Hi, my name is Lean Dean and I am a big dumbass.
Now gimme' your money.
DS, at least that would be an honest comment. Not the bull he has been spouting.
I would like to see a focus group of 10 individuals and hear their reaction to this brilliant marketing idea. He could probably sign them all up instantl.
By the way, no one has mentioned the new ad honcho in san Gabe.
Make no mistake, Singleton is an idiot, just like most of the commenters on this blog.
I commend you all for not letting facts get in the way of your retarded opinions. Way to stand strong!
Go to the Long Beach Web site. Look around real good. When you're done, post a link on here to all the stories you find from San Bernardino.
And as for "nobody wanting the content," that's just ignorant. Please, share some facts to support this.
The MNG Web sites continue to see explosive readership growth. It's the only area of the company where that can be said.
The idea of putting up a pay or registration wall for content isn't a bad idea. MNG certainly has nothing to lose by trying it. They're not making enough money online now.
Well poster at 8:06...you seem a bit sensitive on this subject. Could it be that you are personally involved? This poster never made a comment regarding what you would find from site to site. I could care less if the long beach web site is so local that no other postings are out of the area. My point was and still is that people won't pay for it. And, as far as putting up a pay wall to attempt it, there is nothing wrong with that either. Why have a press release that is full of so much BS? If you give it away free it isn't worth anything...please.
What does MNG have to post online that so many people want to buy? The papers are mostly AP which you can get online just about anywhere you care to look. There are about two local stories in each paper, if that and a couple of local sports stories. The rest is box scores and UCLA-USC stuff which you can get on any other outlet as well as the school sites. So what am I paying for? No answer, just as I thought!!!
exactly right. people pay for value, they won't get any takers. can't wait to see what their paid circulation looks like in the upcoming sept statement. i hear down the toilet.
I, for one, am willing to pay in advance, using a credit card, for an online subscription to the Los Beach Star-Sun Progress-Gabe Whittier Inland Bernardino Long Breeze LA.com , at least for a trial, because I like the name. My credit limit is pretty low, so there might be some problems putting it through.
Y'all on here are caught in a pretty weird position.
Either, a) Your opinions on the Singleton products are a result of your regular readership of them, in which case something keeps bringing you back, or; b) you don't read the products, and you're pulling uninformed nonsense out of your asses.
Either way, y'all are fools.
The papers have plenty of content that can't be had anywhere else.
Not as much as they could, or should have if they had competent management, but it doesn't change the fact that when it comes to community news and sports, they're THE only game in town.
If that weren't true, you wouldn't be on this blog bitching about them every day.
Maybe people will pay for it, maybe they won't.
Only way to know is to try.
Good try 3:35 but not exactly. You could have been a reader, you could pick up the newspaper once a week or month etc. Their content for localness is bad. There are many other sites that cover high school sports like the big two, football and basketball better...that is why they keep trying to deals that never quite pan out with them. And I for one have zero issue with them trying to get folks to pay for it. However, I would wager it will fail. But, why come out with all the puffed up macho crap about charging...do it and let us know if it works. If the content is all that valuable why is their circulation on the road south big time and why are other web sites slaughtering them with views? You are right about one thing, these newspapers get more play than any others here by a wide margin and most of it negative. Why? Because they earned it.
registration or pay...wow, what a new concept. that has been around for a decade or so. suggestion to dean and jody, stop writing memos. how have you done on your last note to employees on your mission statement as run on this blog? not well!
They have made great progress on their May memo...right!
This leaves me wondering about the affect this pay-per-view system will have on LANG's staff and if any plans are in store for reducing more employees. There's no way the papers are doing well after the last hit the staff took in May. Meanwhile counting on revenue from readers willing to pay for the dwindling local content seems like a lofty pipe dream. The only way this news chain earns profits is through layoffs.
From the star news website:
1 year online-only subscription: $65.00/year
$65 BUCKS for what? AP stories, mispellings and way late "news" about idiots on trolleys? They can't sell what does not belong to them, right? I mean, AP stories and photos PLUS all the freelancers stories and photos? Have they given out new "rules" that what freelancers "sell" them can be used anyway they want without further compensation? Wake up all those contractors now!
The newspaper industry is in a mess. Massive ad losses and most won't be coming back. Rapidly shrinking circulation declines for many years. Demos don't match up with future growth. Cost increases, layoffs, less coverage etc.
A lot of tough decisions have been made and will be made to survive. The one thing that sets MNG apart from all others is that their decision are wrong and not communicated and their top management teams are very weak.
This latest fee for online local is such a joke. With the revenue it will generate Dean might not be able to buy cake in the newsroom much longer.
Well he has the right idea, he is only about ohhhh 10 years too late.
Giving it away is stupid, but no way in hell I will pay for what's left of LANG.
Kind of amazing how there's all this dissing of LANG/Media News on a web site taking ads from the LA Times.
If you didn't see the blatant hypocrisy coming from Reporter-G before, it's pretty apparent now.
As far as I am concerned reporter g has as much right to sell or not sell his audience as anyone else. Lang/Media news deserves most of the bashing they get.
To the charge of hypocrisy: A. Google chooses the ads that run on this site - I have no control over them (today's ad is for EZ Lube). B. In two years, the total revenue from these ads amounts to $93. The Times ad brought in about 4 cents. C. I don't oppose charging for online content. In fact, I've argued that by not charging for it, newsrooms have devalued news as part of their business model and thereby created their own rationale for cutting back on quantity and quality.
Gary, good of you to respond to the twit at 5:32...shows a lot of class. Regardless of the revenue, you have a right to monetize your product. The fact that Google placed the ad makes 5:32 even more comical.
You'd be truly honest if you'd just admit you have an agenda Gary.
who the hell doesn't have an agenda or a point of view? do you mean the unbiased journalists? come on, everyone has a point of view or an agenda...don't you?
Anonymous: What's YOUR agenda?
Let's see...29 postings with anonymous, hard to say who you are asking. But, since two are mine, my agenda is that a site can sell to whoever the hell they want to sell it to. If you don't like it, go somewhere else. If you think there is some type of a conflict here I disagree. By the way, I don't know Gary Scott.
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