Maybe Content Isn't Free...

Like lunch, maybe online content isn’t free either. Get ready for more and more talk from MSM – mainstream media – about charging for online content. I just wrote a piece in The Daily Beast about how Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corporation runs the world’s largest English-language journalism business (including the Wall Street Journal), has set up a special team to look into content charging. Steve Brill & Co. have already staked their claim with Journalism Online. Even Britain’s Guardian Media Group, traditionally a left-leaning softie in these matters, is toying with the idea; have a look at this summary of remarks by Carolyn McCall, GMG's CEO, at yesterday’s World Magazine Congress in London. Fasten your seat belts. The bad news is that, over time, you’re increasingly going to have to pay for what you read online – if you’re after quality. The good news is that content-charging may well rescue journalism as we know it (or at least knew it), pumping real money back into reporting - journalism's "empty quarter" - the corner hardest hit by recent cutbacks, layoffs and buyouts.