Newsday Planning to Charge for Online News

[Matt Molnar]

Reuters:

Newsday plans to charge for online news
Thu Feb 26, 2009 3:42pm EST

* Cablevision plans to charge for Newsday website

* Writes down Newsday value by $402 mln

By Yinka Adegoke

NEW YORK, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Cablevision Systems Corp (CVC.N) plans to charge online readers of its Newsday newspaper, a move that would make it one of the first large U.S. papers to reverse a trend toward free Web readership.

Newsday, which covers the New York suburb of Long Island, was bought by Cablevision in a $650 million deal last May that was widely criticized on Wall Street as a puzzling move into a troubled newspaper market.

Cablevision had to write down Newsday's value by $402 million on Thursday, pushing its fourth-quarter results to a loss, as U.S. print advertising sales and circulation have dropped with more readers seeking free news on the Web. [Full Article]

Further proof the Dolans simply have no idea how to run a business in a market where they don't hold a monopoly. Let the Newsday death watch officially begin. :(

[Jonesbeach]

Of all the news websites out there, Newsday.com is probably the last one I would pay to read.

[T-Bird76]

WTF! That website is more ads then news to begin with! You're telling me they don't make enough money already on that site that now you have to pay?

If they run it like the News12 websites it will probably be free for Cablevision customers. The News12 website charges for non cable customers...although anyone who would pay for a news12 website must be a total moron.

[moose135]

WTF! That website is more ads then news to begin with! You're telling me they don't make enough money already on that site that now you have to pay?

No, it doesn't come close to covering costs with the ads that run. Many times advertisers will receive on-line ads as part of a print package, but even for web-only ads, on-line revenue is not much in the overall scheme of things. I don't know of any newspaper (or other news service for that matter) that makes a profit from their on-line offerings.

You pay for TV (either with cable, satellite, or via commercials), you pay for movies, music, and yet people think everything on the internet should be free. Someone has to gather that news, write it, photograph it, edit it, prepare it for the web, upload it, and maintain the server. go down to McDonald's and ask for a free Big Mac and see what their reaction is.

[Matt Molnar]

You pay for TV (either with cable, satellite, or via commercials), you pay for movies, music, and yet people think everything on the internet should be free. Someone has to gather that news, write it, photograph it, edit it, prepare it for the web, upload it, and maintain the server.

Says the guy who runs AdBlock Plus.

[PhilDernerJr]

Paying money for Long Island news. Man....now I've heard it all.

[moose135]

Hearst Newspapers announced they will begin charging for some content as well:

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/02/27/ ... ital-news/

Hearst Corp. said its newspapers plan to hold back at least some content from their free Web sites, launching the publisher onto the vanguard of print media companies to begin charging for their digital news and information.

A top executive at Hearst, which publishes 16 newspapers including the Houston Chronicle and Seattle Post-Intelligencer, said the company is mulling how much of its online offerings to keep free, while reserving some content exclusively for people who pay.

This may be the first step in newspapers coming to the realization that giving away their product isn't the way to achieve long term financial stability.