Mediahustler

Lionel Barber, the editor of the Financial Times has predicted that “almost all” news organisations will charge for their online content within the year.

Discussing the the building of online platforms, mediaguardian reported that Barber said readers of online content will soon have to pay per article or be subject to a subscription charge, a challenge facing all news websites.

Whilst the models for payment are still not clear, Barber spoke of the the online news forecasts and the revenues that could be generated from this method at a Media Standards Trust event at the British Academy last night.

After Rupert Murdoch’s predictions earlier in the year, Barber’s revelations about the future of online news generation and content match a common ideology that  the current flawed business models will move with the times and accomplish the financial and readership success shown with their print formats.

The Financial Times had pioneered the concept of a “frequency model”, giving access to a limited number of articles on the web before asking users to subscribe.

In the mediaguardian article, Barber revealed that the FT “are seeing sustained and growing revenue as a result of our strategy of premium pricing for quality, niche global content – crucial at a time of weakening advertising,” he added.

“Many news organisations are following suit in charging, latterly the New York Times which had previously come down in favour of free access to its own content.”

The Financial Times website, FT.com, has more than 1.3 million non-paying registered users worldwide, with another 110,000 paying subscribers.

Barber said he had not come to “preside over a wake” but to make some “modest suggestions on how good journalism can not only survive but thrive in the digital age”.

He said the new digital world “poses a threat but also an enormous opportunity to established news organisations”, and warned that the “mediocre middle” was most at risk.

Additionally, Barber made a distinction between “crafted” journalism and blogs “largely based on opinion rather than established fact [and] becoming increasingly influential in setting the news agenda”. “Bloggers have broken important stories and will continue to do so,” he said.

But he said they “do not operate according to the same standards as those who aspire to and practise crafted journalism. They are often happy to report rumour as fact, arguing that readers or fellow networkers can step in to correct those “facts” if they turn out to be wrong. They are rarely engaged in the pursuit of original news: their bread and butter is opinion and comment.”

“I do not wish to sound precious. British journalism has always put a premium on the scoop and it has long blurred the distinction between news and comment,” said Barber.

“The rise of bloggers may simply signal the last gasp of the age of deference, not just in politics but also in general social mores in Britain, America and elsewhere. Nor does it follow that the worldwide web has dumbed down journalism.

“On the contrary: it has created opportunities to “smarten up”. News organisations with specialist skills and knowledge have the opportunity to thrive. The mediocre middle is much more at risk.”

(source: mediaguardian.co.uk)