Hearld Sun Superfoooty Pay Wall goes up.

[Daytripper]

Recouped with interest via advertising.

Oh please.

Firstly there are hardly any ads on the Herald Sun website. And any ads are generally News Ltd related anyway.

Secondly, to read an ad on the web requires far more effort on behalf of the consumer. I would dare say 999/1000 would not click on an ad link.

And thirdly, web ads are costly taking up bandwidth space.

 

[Anti-pow]

Recouped with interest via advertising.

Because Australia's coasted through the GFC, everyone's a greedy ****. The public is being gouged left, right and centre.

exactly !!

It's like saying we should now pay for our FTA TV because we've had it for free for so long!

I still don't understand why Foxtel has ads when you're already paying to watch their content!

 

[Daytripper]

Web traffic and therefore advertising revenue is something they can and likely will lose.

Whats the point in web traffic when all the consumers are getting it for free ?

Its akin to having a shop where 100 people walk in, window shop and don't buy anything.

Online ad revenue is vastly, vastly over-rated.

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

Oh please.

Firstly there are hardly any ads on the Herald Sun website. And any ads are generally News Ltd related anyway.

Secondly, to read an ad on the web requires far more effort on behalf of the consumer. I would dare say 999/1000 would not click on an ad link.

And thirdly, web ads are costly taking up bandwidth space.

So you think up until now, non-subscription online media was a charity provided by the Herald-Sun, which had operated at a loss since it was introduced and their newspapers were completely propping up their online content?

 

[Roby]

I have just deleted HS from my bookmarks and replaced it with the AGE.

You would have been wise to have done this even pre-paywall. The year level needed to read the Herald Sun is Year 8, as opposed to The Age which is a Year 11 level requirement.

So effectively they are now charging for inferior online articles when superior media isn't? How many times have I read The Herald Sun only to find blatant misinformation, grammar mistakes, etc...

The one positive I see in this is that consumer will start to look elsewhere giving opportunity to freelancers to blog or start their own media, and thus create a market for it.

Sure, maybe in the short term News Limited will profit but in the long it will only serve for their consumers to look elsewhere.

 

[10987654321]

What happens with Supercoach? I don't play it but isn't it through the HS and is it behind the paywall?

 

[DivideandMultiply]

Whats the point in web traffic when all the consumers are getting it for free ?

Its akin to having a shop where 100 people walk in, window shop and don't buy anything.

Online ad revenue is vastly, vastly over-rated.

Maybe I am wrong but doesn't the HUN's business model rely mainly on classifieds with the rest being window dressing?

Declining sales figures pushed News in the online direction, lower overheads, thd to compete in a new market and the advertising dollar have kept them there.

This kind of subscription service is an anachronism and plenty of free content providers will be happy to exploit the situation.

Bottom line, this will lose them web traffic and in the end I think be unsustainable.

 

[Daytripper]

So you think up until now, non-subscription online media was a charity provided by the Herald-Sun, which had operated at a loss since it was introduced and their newspapers were completely propping up their online content?

In a nutshell. Yes.
It operates as a loss leader.

I think they would have been concerned also that more and more people were foregoing buying the physical paper to read it for free online.

 

[Daytripper]

Maybe I am wrong but doesn't the HUN's business model rely mainly on classifieds with the rest being window dressing?

Declining sales figures pushed News in the online direction, lower overheads, thd to compete in a new market and the advertising dollar have kept them there.

News aren't as dependent on classifieds as Fairfax. To say that it would depend totally on ads is wrong. They are getting six figures per day on sales of the physical paper.

This kind of subscription service is an anachronism and plenty of free content providers will be happy to exploit the situation.

Not an anachronism. Its the way of the future.

Bottom line, this will lose them web traffic and in the end I think be unsustainable.

Its unsustainable now hence the move.

 

[Ron The Bear]

Oh please.

Firstly there are hardly any ads on the Herald Sun website. And any ads are generally News Ltd related anyway.

Secondly, to read an ad on the web requires far more effort on behalf of the consumer. I would dare say 999/1000 would not click on an ad link.

And thirdly, web ads are costly taking up bandwidth space.

"Those three classified channels of automotive, real estate and jobs are doing extremely well online. Carsales really demonstrates what's occurring: its display advertising was up nearly 40 per cent," said Morningstar's Tim Montague-Jones.

With these online businesses, once they make the investment in the technology platform, a lot of the extra marginal revenue that comes in goes straight through to the bottom line as profit. So they're great businesses to own."

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/med...gers-of-bad-news/story-e6frg996-1226296429497

Oh sorry, you need a subscription to read it.

Sales of print media are falling, so they are tacking on a charge to a pre-existing service. A bit like Harvey Norman trying to recoup sagging profits with dodgy demos of outrageously overpriced Monster AV cables.

I'm old school and prefer hard copy to reading from electronic devices, anyway (even though I own a Kindle).

 

[DivideandMultiply]

News aren't as dependent on classifieds as Fairfax. To say that it would depend totally on ads is wrong. They are getting six figures per day on sales of the physical paper.

Not an anachronism. Its the way of the future.

Its unsustainable now hence the move.

Daytripper what you are ignoring is that their content is neither premium, nor exclusive.

The AFL are a content wall to some extent and seem happy, nay eager to pick up the slack and push their own online news site.

If they apply the clamps re access, even to a small degree this will cripple what small advantage a traditional news media operator has.

For breaking news I have seen more in the last 12 months on the twittersphere and even bigfooty, in regards to injuries and occasionally contracts or scandals than either the HUN or the Age. True exclusivity in this regard is almost gone and few journalists especially those with more than one allegiance will be willing to give up their profile (say twitter), in the off chance they can get a story out before one of their competitors puts pen to paper (metaphorically in this case).

There is no future in a subscription service like this as long as Twitter, blogs and forums exist. These are things that are only gaining in popularity.

 

[catswhiskers]

The footy almanac is great resource.

footyalmanac.com.au

Its blogs like this that will crank up to fill the void.

 

[Stratton_Gun]

will not work. i wont pay a cent to get news i have always heard about for free. anyway, if the news is big enough, i will hear about it

 

[Ron The Bear]

Not an anachronism. Its the way of the future.

The way of the future is to lock people into financial commitments. Online subscriptions. Football memberships. Pay TV contracts. Subscription-only anti-virus software.

Hell, you can't even make a simple one-off donation to some charities any more. They want to lock you into an ongoing commitment.

 

[catswhiskers]

Checked out the ABC footy news today too (taxpayer funded).

There were stories on there that were on the Hun site also.

I know little about news /publishing but don't a lot of stories emanate from "wire services" such as Rueters(?) and as such the Hun etc do not generate the content.

Maybe they pay for it (?) - but unless all subscribers to the wire service go pay for read on the net then it will be easy to source articles elsewhere.

 

[The Speaker]

Didn't want News Limited closing the loophole due to too many people knowing about it.

If they were going to close it, they would've done so with The Australian.

They put the paywall for it up last year, that loophole still exists now.

 

[dumb]

when people find they have to pay for it they will discover how little they actually need such slop.

 

[RogersResults]

Protip: cut n paste the headline of the article you want to read into Google, click on the first link that comes up, read the article free of charge. Profit.

Works!

But not so with the Times in London - Murdoch's first pay-wall online.
Suspect the Herald-Sun is still in some sort of trial period.

Article from the Guardian (which is still free) on the Times pay-wall.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/organgrinder/2011/jul/03/times-paywall-revenue

 

[Gavin Excell]

I'm assuming Supercoach will still be free. That will be the only reason I go on their site from now on

I thinks thats where they will hit when they realise people aren't too keen to pay to read Robbo

 

[hawker11]

The problem with the HS doing this is that their standards are not worthy of subscription. They are certainly taking a risk in a changing media landscape.

 

[RogersResults]

Checked out the ABC footy news today too (taxpayer funded).

There were stories on there that were on the Hun site also.

I know little about news /publishing but don't a lot of stories emanate from "wire services" such as Rueters(?) and as such the Hun etc do not generate the content.

Maybe they pay for it (?) - but unless all subscribers to the wire service go pay for read on the net then it will be easy to source articles elsewhere.

from but

There are occasions where you will read the same match review from Australian Associated Press (AAP) in Fairfax's Realfooty and News Limited's Superfooty and elsewhere.

 

[arrowman]

One little glitch in their plan - compare these two links:

Via the Hun website:

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/afl/why-carlton-can-win-the-premiership/story-fn5937w8-1226296657546

Via the AdelaideNow site:

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/afl/why-carlton-can-win-the-premiership/story-e6freck3-1226296657546

 

[Tulip]

I like your work MC, you know I do. But there appears to be a whole heap of uneducated outside judgement about BFN. We tried to get AFL Media Accreditation but got knocked back. It's also becoming increasingly hard to get interviews with Telstra putting up a wall of exclusivity through their club contacts.

I hope Dean (the author of the aforementioned article) isn't fazed by the criticism and continues to keep up the enthusiasm.

PM'd the author of that.

Apparently they wrote it after a night on the piss, not the type of professionalism required.

 

[LeverPuller]

PM'd the author of that.

Apparently they wrote it after a night on the piss, not the type of professionalism required.

haha

 

[nicko99]

So when will this pay to view be enforced?

will there still be free content?