Herald/Sun - Newspapers charging for online content

[Tigers of Old]

Re: HeraldSun

The day may come where there may not be a newspaper to buy in a shop.

Quicker than you know craigo. My mate is a printer for Fairfax and they've all pretty well been told that there won't be a job for them shortly.

 

[Baloo]

Re: HeraldSun

I'm not aware of any deal like that, but if they were to do that I would be happy. I highly doubt they will do it though.

Front page of the HUN Website states:

Good news for Home Delivery Customers – you will receive FREE access to our new Digital Pass. Learn more

 

[Rosy]

It's hard to have an opinion when I don't know anything about it so I've registered for the free 2 month trial. After 2 months it's either $2.95 a week on it's own, $4.95 per week with Sat-Sun paper delivery, $5.95 per week with Mon-Fri paper delivery or $8.95 with all papers.

I doubt I'd subscribe. I don't want the papers and we don't have the delivery option here anyway. I give donations to helpful or pleasurable websites I really like as a token of appreciation. They are usually costing someone money and I don't take it as a given right for me to use them for nothing. I don't like the idea of being forced into an ongoing subscription though.

 

[Rfc4Ever]

I haven't been buying the Hun for years so I'm not that fussed paying $2.95 a week for online access considering I visit the website a few times a day.

I suppose its the way things are going these days.

 

[Tigers of Old]

Re: HeraldSun

Front page of the HUN Website states:

Good news for Home Delivery Customers – you will receive FREE access to our new Digital Pass. Learn more

Excellent.

I reckon my printer mate is correct. The traditional rag may very soon be a thing of the past.
They will be thinking most of Australia now has internet access. Soon we'll be paying for sites that have been taken for granted as free for a decade.

 

[jb03]

Re: HeraldSun

Front page of the HUN Website states:

Good news for Home Delivery Customers – you will receive FREE access to our new Digital Pass. Learn more

Free 12 months for 6-7 day subscribers. Free 3 months for 1-5 day subscribers.

 

[TigerForce]

Subscribe = spam.

 

[ToraToraTora]

Digital dunny paper. I'm glad I won't be putting myself brought Robbo's drivel anymore.

 

[craig]

Re: HeraldSun

Quicker than you know craigo. My mate is a printer for Fairfax and they've all pretty well been told that there won't be a job for them shortly.

Nice work my Dear Olden, just out of interest had a chat to my local newspaper shop owner today and asked if slaes were down on papers ie they were returning more papers to the printers, or were they receiving less from the printers with declining circulation.

Unoquivocally stated we recive less papers now because we started sending more back and there it is they tried bumping up the prices to keep making money thus just pushing more and more people to the convenience of on line news then forcing them to pay for it.

 

[Legends of 2017]

Is it just me or did there seem to be less in today's paper? 10 pages of sport, taken up with 2 pages of ads for their new whizz bang website plus a page of Mike's top 50 and a double page feature on essendon. Are they keeping news to just theor pay per view website?

 

[jb03]

The biggest problem for the HUN and their website idea is that the large majority of their readership won't know how to operate a computer.

 

[Baloo]

The biggest problem for the HUN and their website idea is that the large majority of their readership won't know how to operate a computer.

True, but that's what iThings are for. Computing for the BDU masses

 

[Tigerhart04]

Re: HeraldSun

They will be thinking most of Australia now has internet access. Soon we'll be paying for sites that have been taken for granted as free for a decade.

And IMO you can add Google's currently "free" services. It won't be too long before you'll be charged to access all your data that is sitting on their servers ie mail, Youtube, photos etc etc. Can't believe it hasn't happened already. Sorry to hijack the thread a little bit.

 

[Tigers of Old]

Is it just me or did there seem to be less in today's paper? 10 pages of sport, taken up with 2 pages of ads for their new whizz bang website plus a page of Mike's top 50 and a double page feature on essendon. Are they keeping news to just theor pay per view website?

Definitely less content in the paper today which is weird considering you still pay for the content, unlike the website.

Digital readers will come down in price like everything else electronic does and soon they'll be virtually giving them away.

This is the start of the shift..

 

[LeeToRainesToRoach]

Newspapers commonly claim the form guide is expensive to produce. Even though I enjoy a bet, if they're looking to increase profitability, I don't think their bare-bones coverage is a necessity these days.

 

[GoodOne]

Re: Re: Dustin "Bull" Martin

Then if Fairfax is performing so well in this regard as you claim, why are they teetering on the brink of unprofitability?

Well I don't know if EBIDTA of $250mill would be classed as unprofitable but regardless I think you don't have a good understanding of where their revenues come from and which parts of their business are failing and which ones are growing. Online content including classifieds grew by 14% for the year according to their latest interim annual announcement. Online advertising grew 18%. They are investing heavily in this area for the future. The obvious decline is in the printed material. I never made any claim about how well or badly Fairfax is performing as a company overall.

 

[GoodOne]

Re: HeraldSun

And IMO you can add Google's currently "free" services. It won't be too long before you'll be charged to access all your data that is sitting on their servers ie mail, Youtube, photos etc etc. Can't believe it hasn't happened already. Sorry to hijack the thread a little bit.

They'll never do that. They make a '%^&*load' in other functions and these areas rely on good patronage. It's a very clever model. If they do start charging for some of these free things, there are alot of competitors who will grasp at the opportunity to get a foot in the door.

 

[GoodOne]

Well I just opend up a little tablet clone thingy that I bought from China for $90 and checked the News app I downloaded recently. These are the 28 I get to choose from:

Herald Sun, ABC, The Age, The Australian, Canberra Times, Carsguide, Crikey, Fox Sports, Albany Weekender, Bigpond Nes, Brisbane Times, Business Day, Courier Mail, Financial Review, Google News, Green Left Weekly, Il Globo, Necastle Herald, news.com.au, ninemsn, Perth Now, Sydney Morning Herald, The Advertiser, The Advocate, The Daily Telegraph, The Mercury, WA Business News, WA Today.

Another app also has Weatherzone, Yahoo News, News Onlinem ESPN, CNET news, BBC Bews,. There are a number of others. Stuff if I know how anyone can afford to charge for their news service. There'd have to be something extra special for many to warrant paying an amount for their onlie news.

 

[Rosy]

Is it just me or did there seem to be less in today's paper?

I didn't see it but that sounds fairly typical for the Tuesday H/S.

 

[Tigerhart04]

Re: HeraldSun

They'll never do that. They make a '%^&*load' in other functions and these areas rely on good patronage. It's a very clever model. If they do start charging for some of these free things, there are alot of competitors who will grasp at the opportunity to get a foot in the door.

We'll see Goodie, watch this space