Re: Newspapers are doomed?

From: Shailesh Bhat <shaileshbhat_at_mail.com>
Date: Mon 25 Sep 2000 17:42:08 -0500

DAVID YANCEY <dyancey_at_ibizadmin.com> WROTE:
> The fact that newspapers will survive in some printed
> form is not the question, but whether they'll do so as
> viable, growing businesses. And, as they face the
> challenge of online news sources, how they can adapt
> using their local and content advantages...
>
> In short, the Internet itself is not a threat to the
> newspaper business, so much as is the underlying
> technology - the ability to understand and manage
> individual preferences, coupled with the near zero cost
> of content, coupled with the near zero cost of
> email-based delivery, coupled with the fantastic
> increase in ad-dollar performance thereby made
> possible.

Dear all,

I have been receiving and reading o-a for the past 6
months, but this is my first post -

The current discussion on Print Newspapers has been
extremely interesting. In general I tend to agree with
David(I too am not taking a technology or a Consumer
Behaviour view but an economics view at this time).
However I have a couple of questions/views on which I
would appreciate your opinions

David says "...coupled with the near zero cost of
content ..." Is this true?

I suspect that, today, the net gets "Subsidized
content" - ie content is being re-purposed for the
net(the original purpose perhaps being a printed
newspaper, a magazine etc) due to which the costs are
kept low - artificially.

Also, since the Net does not have a limitation in terms
of number of pages lots of content which would not make
it to a printed pages makes it to the net(adding to the
clutter??) which gives a feeling of lots of news(Data
really) being available free.

Another question I have relates to content protection
through DRMs(digital Rights Management)? Do you see
this happening to news content on the net?

Warm Regards,
Shailesh.





Received on Mon Sep 25 2000 - 17:42:08 CDT