The New York Post (owned by News Corp) is reporting that Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. are has assembled a team of executives to devise a system to charge for content on the Web.
The team is said to be looking at creating a user-friendly device akin to Amazon’s Kindle to deliver content from such News Corp. newspapers, The Wall Street Journal, The Times of London and The New York Post, as well as content from the company’s television and movie units.
“The move is also a clear break from the notion that content, particularly news content, can be offered online for free and monetized solely through advertising.”
In related news, Amazon released its new Kindle, the Kindle DX, which is a much larger reader 9.7″ screen, with a price tag of $489. Amazon also announced that several newspapers including The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and The Washington Post, will offer the Kindle DX at a reduced price to readers who live in areas where home-delivery is not available and who sign up for a long-term subscription to the Kindle edition of the newspapers.
For newspapers survival seems to lie in the web and electronic devises.
As well they should. I can’t believe that the newspapers weren’t charging Google for access to the content. How foolish. Everyone gave all this data to google for free and google makes Millions off of it and in return gives them adsense? What a deal. What if google had to pay a nickel to spider your site? That would knock them off their high horse. Google is nothing without the air they breathe.
Hearst to launch a wireless e-reader
The publisher plans to introduce a large-format device this year based on electronic-ink technology.
February 27, 2009: 12:08 PM ET
http://money.cnn.com/2009/02/27/technology/copeland_hearst.fortune/
But the secret is that News Corp. will sell the content through MySpace & Twitter.