• David Howe

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29 September 2009Everybody's talking about content monetisation. In New Matilda, David Howe looks at proposals from Google and Microsoft

MURDOCH's announcement that the free ride is over has certainly generated some debate. What this signals is a substantial shift in thinking about the price of content on the internet. What was missing from Murdoch's announcement – and others like Fairfax Media chief Brian McCarthy's statement that "monetisation will have to happen" – is just how newspapers will make the transition online.

The current dire situations in which newspapers and their owners find themselves have two common bases: firstly, the digitisation of data and its distribution via the internet has rendered newspaper obsolete, and secondly, the ongoing requirement for these businesses to return a profit. These are the obvious problems that Murdoch and other media owners must address.

The idea that the newspapers can more aggressively monetise their assets with a mixture of paywalls, subscriptions and advertising is uncontroversial.The question of whether such an approach will return the newspapers to levels of profitability they once enjoyed is less straightforward. There are certainly precedents which suggest that people can be convinced to pay for content when it is freely available elsewhere. After all, people pay Microsoft for new software every few years despite the abundance of free alternatives. The very existence of pay TV and ISPs imply that consumers are prepared to pay for content...

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