We talk about the media a lot at SFN, and the decline of the ‘old media’ is of a lot of interest to us.
With this said, we though the the recent news that the News & Observer will start charging for digital content on December 19th would be of some interest.
It will be interesting to see if this decision is a boon or bust – as advertising rates are presumably driven by readership, will a marked decline in readership’s effect on advertising revenues offset any (and I do mean any) digital subscription revenues? They don’t get it that there’s simply too many other free sources for news. Their call, though. Just hope Dan Kane lands the final blows before this kicks in.