Saw some claims by the Guardian's editor
1)Guardian took 37 million viewers last year.
2)2nd behind BBC website
3)Never planning to charge as it would *drastically* cut down their customer base for advertisers
4)Only successful charging *general* new websites are Financial Times and Wall Street Journal (although according to other posters they might be part free and part "premium" content).
5) They both supply time sensitive information which is worthwhile (to some people) to have now.
6)They can be paid for by companies on behalf of their employees.
Murdoch has *never* been neutral. In a *rare* interview he stated that "The Times will support who they like, I will be talking to the Sun's Political Editor to discuss who they will be supporting," a fairly clear indication that he doses the prole feed. Although when it comes to China he does *exactly* what Beijing wants. Still could make life for the in-laws awkward if he doesn't
You will note that cross media ownership (IE Owning Sun/Times/Sunday Times/Fox News) and the influence they wield has *never* been on *any* Labor agenda since 1997. Likewise extending the Representation of the People Act (which requires UK TV channels to be even handed in their political coverage) to cover newspapers.
The Murdoch model is roughly
1)Charge consumers for the product
2)Charge advertisers for access to the consumers eyeballs.
3) Get a chunk of license fee off the government because the BBC is "unfair" competition and won't do what I say.
And on a practical note. It's not really a micro payment scheme is it? People buying a newspaper pay money and get a *physical* object in return. They *know* it costs something to make this and distribute it. They also know that it costs a *hell* of a lot less to then distribute content on the internet.
Would *anyone* pay for some content. People do so for specialised content already. what might I pay for. Specialised content? Detailed knowledgeable analysis. Long term deep investigations.
Some people have stopped buying *any* newspaper altogether.