Murdoch at odds with The Guardian over paywalls
03 Feb 2010
Category: News
Source:
Rupert Murdoch has told The Guardian that he believes that hyped technology such as the iPad and the Kindle would be "unloved and unsold...ingenious and fabulous devices" without the content created by media companies. The media baron is also taking issue with the Editor of The Guardian, Alan Rusbridger, over charging readers to access content. Apparently Rusbridger's views expressed in his recent Cudlipp lecture that paywalls around newspaper websites could lead the industry to sleepwalk into oblivion sound like BS to Murdoch. He added that in his view "content is not just king, it is the emperor of all things digital. We're on the cusp of a digital revolution from which our shareholders will profit handsomely."
Meanwhile the ex Editor of The Guardian, Peter Preston, has come up with what might be a interesting way for Murdoch to charge for that content. In an article for The Observer Preston suggested that the way in which News Corp could massively increase its subscription base was via its satellite/web operation BSkyB.
Preston writes "Now watch closely as 10 million Sky subscribers get an offer they can't reasonably refuse. How about beyond-the-wall access to four big British papers (plus an array of tempting other goodies) for as little as 50p extra a month? £6m a month for that is £72m - in a trice the losses on Wapping's more upmarket offerings are turned to profit - with plenty more tugs on the Sky pay lever to come."
The online version of The Times will go behind a paywall later in the Spring, with The Sunday Times and possibly The Sun following soon after.
