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1 Dec. 2009
Thank you.
I was invited here to talk about the value of journalism. About how
But now a little context. I use Google just as most of do. What it
the age.
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But the main, and most uncomfortable, truth is that this industry is
the price too low. Because free isn’t sustainable. Because free is
too expensive.
billion.
what’s transpired. The world has changed utterly, they type. The
Internet.
is over.
Is it really?
It’s been barely a decade since the Internet bubble burst on the
the future. Build it, and they will come. Eyeballs and advertisers.
that they tell us is over. That is, the one thing free news sites have
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money with free content on the Web – its own content, that is.
YouTube probably defined viral on the Web more than any other
site. It lets anyone upload any video they like for free. Millions did
That makes one wonder just how long it will be before YouTube
Even advertisers, who once cared above all about clicks and
Two weeks ago the Internet Advertising Bureau and Bain &
So, ironically, what they now want is more of the 'old media'
Obviously this is all great for the Wall Street Journal Digital
sites are more engaged, more favorable towards a brand, and are
homepage buyouts on WSJ.com have sold out for the last two
months.
We can take heart that high-quality content can break out from
now - been the one major U.S. newspaper charging for content
online.
At the same time it has been the one major newspaper that has
subscriptions.
If you are not finding new readers willing to pay, maybe it should
do. They should price their content at zero because the content
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isn’t what’s valued. The theory is it’s the links to the content that
Convenient.
But who will buy all this advertising? Who is going to underwrite
Let’s not forget the basic economics: The rates on our ad cards
Implicit in the false gospel of the Web is the faith that free is
superior. And those who dare think otherwise are heretics and
fools.
But neither the newsstand nor the Web is a lending library. Even
Google has conceded it can’t just reprint every book without due
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journalism be different?
business may have struggled for a time with the issue, but it
should we?
Can’t say it didn’t work for a time. But look where it’s left us…
differentiates the Journal isn’t free. You want the Journal’s global
scope, you want news, you want analysis and commentary – print
among them, more than a million who pay to take the newspaper
digitally.
outrageous proposition?
nearly 20 million subscribers pay for radio from Sirius, the satellite
There are other examples from the Journal. The Journal now
charges for news via online devices like I-Phone and Blackberry
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That same headline goes at the same time to trading desks for
Next, the news is on The Wall Street Journal Web site. A reader
print edition, the price – the value, if you will – is $350 a year. In
come.
At the same time as we navigate our way into the digital future,
sit idle much of the day – or worse, much of the night. The ROI on
U.S., we not only reduce the cost of production, we cut the cost of
transportation.
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facilities.
The lesson we should take from the Internet revolution isn’t that
free is final. It’s not that trust and authority are unwelcome.
ones.
room charge for content on paper and still collect a tidy sum in the
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Consumers will seek the valuable over the vapid because they
always do.
The man who would create the first national newspaper in the
ago:
The fish market wraps fish in paper. We wrap news in paper. The
We can only wonder how things might have been different today
had other newspapers done as the Journal did in 1996 and set a
fair price for content online. We can only wonder what we would
And yet this remains an age of great promise for what we do.
…We now have the means to reach billions of people who until
companies that prosper will be those that find new and better
And they should fail, just as a restaurant that offers meals no one
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should fail.
delivered.
Thank you.