tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1538462459035039807.post6832401808848774624..comments2009-11-18T16:29:31.854-05:00Richard Whittallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18267088105544695799noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1538462459035039807.post-77234493262481644612009-11-18T16:29:32.064-05:002009-11-18T16:29:32.064-05:00I still think the biggest mistake newspapers and magazines ever did was to give their content away for free online. I know why they did it: at the time advertisers were willing to pay big bucks to sites with a lot of traffic. Plus let&#39;s not forget that many print pubs survived on advertising alone prior to that. Content was important, sure, but often only as something to place the ads around. How many people bought the pub was secondary to its DISTRIBUTION, which is what attracted advertisers.<br /><br />What you have now is a much &quot;purer&quot; market for content if you think about it. You can&#39;t just print a million issues and expect to get advertisers. You need to produce quality content, but even then it&#39;s not going to be able to survive through ads alone. The past five-10 years have proved that.<br /><br />So you need to charge for content. It&#39;s that simple. And why shouldn&#39;t you charge for something that is as labor-intensive as an exclusive news story? Or a compelling piece of longform journalism? In some form or another, pay walls are going to have to go up. Personally, I&#39;m looking forward to that day because then I might actually be able to earn a few bucks.The Soccer Sourcehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13874664836520462410noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1538462459035039807.post-29195289336712148692009-11-18T12:27:30.045-05:002009-11-18T12:27:30.045-05:00I think I have two slight quarrels with you Richard, but no major fisticuffs.<br /><br />First, I think the &quot;write about popular stuff&quot; to get traffic idea is antithetical to the Google/search engine algorithm - if you are king of an obscure key word, but king, then you still get traffic. My most popular post was a Spanish language recap on a 0-0 world cup qualifier between Chile and Ecuador. <br /><br />Why? Because nobody else even wrote a one liner about it. <br /><br />Second, I think bloggers can get anonymous tips just like major papers, so the fact gathering gap has narrowed. Also, more players are giving interviews to blogs - so the celebrity elbow rubbing has also commenced.<br /><br />I know we are at a transitory state where the big reputation looks a dinosaur compared to nimble but nameless upstarts, but that&#39;s capitalism for you.Elliotthttp://futfanatico.comnoreply@blogger.com