Journalism Online, a new LLC focused on (obviously) online journalism. Here’s a bit from their homepage:
“We have formed Journalism Online because we think this is a special moment in time when there is an urgent need for a business model that allows quality journalism to be the beneficiary of the Internet’s efficient delivery mechanism rather than its victim,” said co-founder Steven Brill. “We believe we have developed a strategy and a set of services that will establish that model by restoring a stream of circulation revenue to supplement advertising revenue, while taking advantage of the savings to be gained from producing and delivering content electronically.”
They’re right: newspapers have to figure out how to survive - and thrive - in an online world.
Here’s the problem: TV and cable news aren’t in the same predicament that newspapers are. Newspapers are in a position where they have to make their sites profitable to survive. TV and cable news don’t have that problem.
The biggest problem with charging for content - no matter how detailed the group’s plan may be - is that the reading public is used to online news being free. Thus, if newspaper are charging and TV and cable news sites aren’t, newspapers still lose.