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--- "v. fernandez" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:Hello There!!! Came across the web page(GOAN OBSERVER Online).How come they intend to charge Rs1000/for a year's 'online subscription'? Does the content justify the amt? What is the frequency of the print edition? Can some one throw light on the subject?
Vict. Fernandez has a point.
On the Internet, readers have become used to getting content for free.
Most newspapers follow a model where they offer free content, and earn by way of the earnings from advertising on their site. Some use their websites as a brand-building exercise -- even if they don't earn money, at least the profile of their mast-head is improved. A few papers, like the New York Times, if not mistaken, do require you to register before visiting their content. But this too is free.
Publications like Goa Today, from Goa, had a problem in the past. This is because a large part of its circulation, from what one understands, is overseas. So having a lot of their current content on the web could eat into their circulation and subscriber-base.
Some papers charge you for enabling you to print out a PDF version of their paper, in the same format that it appears, and long long before you would otherwise receive your copy via snail-mail. (Ixtt was trying out such a model, from Pilar.) It makes sense. It's a win-win situation. The reader gets the copy of the paper (in exact replica) much earlier. The publishers save money they would have spent on postage; and they get revenue too.
In the case of the Goan Observer, the cost of the print product, if one purchases it in Goa itself, should be around Rs 250-300 per year. It is somewhat surprising that a reader is being charged Rs 1000 for accessing the web-site. This means almost three to four times the cost of the print edition, even though the cost of paper, ink, commissions to news-agents and distribution is not involved in the e-distribution process.
Obviously, this service is targeted at the more affluent (and more-sentimental?) NRI Goan. But then, as some of us journalists have been arguing, there are politicians and mediapersons who have long recognised that the expat Goan (specially the Catholic) is someone with loads of emotions and a fat purse ;-)
At the moment, different models of journalism are being tried out in Goa. At one extreme are the free-sheeters, which sustain themselves on advertising and distribute copies (only in select areas, through) without charge. Because of the stagnation of the prices of newspapers, mainstream dailies have come to increasingly depend on advertisers. This is unhealthy, as the advertiser's interests (rather than readers) tend to dominate. In a place where the State is still a big (and discriminatory) advertiser, you could well imagine the effect of this.
Some sections of the press are not above cutting deals with politicians and industry, and this reflects in the position taken by some influential publications as well. FN
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha (FN) Nr Convent Saligao 403511 GoaIndia Freelance Journalist P: 832-2409490 M: 9822122436 http://fn.swiki.net http://fn-floss.notlong.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Where the needs of the world and your talents cross, there lies your vocation. --Aristotle
