I'm a little slow, I guess, but this morning I realized why they're doing it.
When the Press switches to a paid website -- something that's in the works -- the Courant could simply rewrite whatever is on it and post the stories in this manner on its own website, for free.
I can't say whether some kind of legal problem might arise from the wholesale snatching of Bristol stories -- I can imagine copyright or anti-trust issues in that -- but, hey, it might work.
If the Courant can grab readers who might have paid for the Press website, it adds eyeballs to its own site and snatches them from the Press site. It's potentially a winner, however sleazy.
I'm sure this is something that my own bosses are going to be taking a look at as they decide how best to move toward a website that isn't wholly free anymore.
Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
6 comments:
The press is switching to a paid website? I don't mind paying but hopefully it's a well thought out design. For years the press would not deliver to my house on Federal hill, I started reading online as a result. Since moving I continue reading online. But I scan for the top three stories, everything else is too buried to be discovered. Newspaper format actually works for browsing a paper. It can be done online.
Yeah, they're looking into it. I ope the design will be better, but we'll see. There's a lot that could be done, but resources are scarce.
I don't mind paying if it's reasonably priced, though I'd think advertising dollars would be enough. Just hope like it's done well so that it engages me to read further stories.
Advertising doesn't even come close to paying for newspaper websites -- if you count paying reporters, editors and photographers whose content makes up the vast majority of the website.
How much do advertising dollars comprise today of traditional news"papers" revenue? Leaving the paper behind and going only online I would think would drastically change how much advertising revenue would be generated.
We may find out one of these days....
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