It’s difficult to find an industry that has had a harder time transitioning to the digital age than the print news media. It also would be tough to find an industry that inflicted so much damage on itself by making a single bad decision. When readers started gravitating to electronic platforms, most print publishers responded by porting their existing content to the Web and giving readers free access. I can’t prove it, but I firmly believe that by not charging for their online content at the outset, print publishers gave readers — and more importantly, advertisers — the impression that their product had no value.
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It's Time for Print Pubs to End the Free Online Lunch
Posted by: Sidney Hill April 1, 2011 05:00 AMIt’s difficult to find an industry that has had a harder time transitioning to the digital age than the print news media. It also would be tough to find an industry that inflicted so much damage on itself by making a single bad decision. When readers started gravitating to electronic platforms, most print publishers responded by porting their existing content to the Web and giving readers free access. I can’t prove it, but I firmly believe that by not charging for their online content at the outset, print publishers gave readers — and more importantly, advertisers — the impression that their product had no value.