Registration Screen from the Times

Not to continue beating a dead horse, or to steal Patrick’s thunder by continuing to rift on the fading glory that is the Newspaper, but there’s been a pretty interesting experiment that’s being going on across the pond that has the potential to change the way we access news online. I’m talking about The Times’ (of London) institution of a pay-for-content scheme, or paywall.

As of July 2, 2010 only The Times’ homepage is available to the public. Attempting to click through to any full story results in an automatic redirect to the registration screen shown above. Current costs are £1 for a daily pass or for a trial month’s worth of access, and could potentially go up over time. Continue Reading →

Everyone knows that print journalism is in a death rattle, and it’s tempting to wax nostalgic as paper after paper bites the dust. But when you hear comments like those of Tribune Chairman Sam Zell, it’s tough to have a lot of sympathy.

During an interview with CNBC, Zell was asked about the future of the newspaper business. What is his visionary prediction? PDFs. That’s right–the staggering problem of remaining profitable in the newspaper industry could be solved if only we could figure out a way to deliver PDF versions of publications.

“going forward, it’s going to require all kinds of different approaches, including probably most significant, the elimination of home delivery and the replacement of it by PDFs.”

Continue Reading →

Companies gathering information from consumers on the Internet need to be upfront about how they will use that content. There is a shocking story in the Thursday March 26th New York Times about how one site, www.realage.com is really passing on consumer’s information to drug companies that turn around and market information about their products who might have a specific condition. The practice raises serious privacy issues in part because the site’s privacy policy does not specifically mention the firm’s relationship with drug companies, and consumers are sent information about drug treatment options before they may have even been diagnosed by a physician. It is certainly proper for companies to request information from consumers or customers. Those that are upfront about the use of information, and don’t sell it to third parties, will not maintain their integrity, they will earn their customer’s trust and business.

The New York Times’ politics blog “The Caucus” took a short break from the presidential race to plug the ABA’s Constitution Day game “Uncle Sam’s Attic” that we created (see previous “Happy Constitution Day” listing).