DECEMBER 8, 2009, 5:00 A.M. ET Springer to Launch Paid Online Content
By MATTHEW KARNITSCHNIG Wall Street Journal http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704825504574582060739041246.html BERLIN—Germany's Axel Springer AG is preparing a broad offensive to introduce pay models for its core online news properties, Chief Executive Mathias Döpfner said in an interview. In a first step, Springer, publisher of the Bild tabloid, Europe's largest circulation daily, plans Tuesday to unveil new fee-based editions of its two flagship German dailies tailored to Apple Inc.'s iPhone. In the coming months, Springer will introduce additional pay models across its online platforms, though much of the content will remain free, Mr. Döpfner said. "I see no justification, neither democratic nor market-related, for content to be generally free on the Internet," Mr. Döpfner said. "For centuries, people have been willing to pay for things of interest to them." The adoption of a paid content strategy by continental Europe's largest newspaper house adds an influential voice to the debate over whether the industry's future amid falling print readership depends on its ability to charge online users. As in the U.S., most European newspapers offer their online content at no charge. Skeptics of paid strategies argue that most readers simply won't pay for content they can find elsewhere for free and that the industry needs to find new solutions. News Corp., publisher of The Wall Street Journal as well as the U.K.'s Sun and Times newspapers, has been the most vocal in pushing the industry to begin demanding payment for online news. News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch recently criticized Google and other Web sites that reuse articles published by others without bearing the costs. Google has responded that it acts as a "great source of promotion" for newspapers. Mr. Döpfner says the answer to the newspaper industry's online dilemma lies not in choking off news aggregators such as Google, but rather in developing flexible pay models and an infrastructure that makes it easier for users to pay for content. He said he envisions a system that would include everything from traditional subscription models to micro payments for individual articles. The company plans to build the pay models around the Bild franchise and Die Welt, a national broadsheet targeted at a more sophisticated audience. Mr. Döpfner declined to say how much Springer would charge for its iPhone app or other offerings. Springer is currently in talks with Deutsche Telekom AG, Germany's dominant telecom provider, over as system that would allow users to place such charges on their monthly telephone bill, he said. "One thing is clear: the customer wants it to be easy and quick," he said. Springer has so far been spared many of the pressures faced by U.S. newspaper publishers. Last year, Springer, which also publishes a number of magazines and Poland's top-selling tabloid, Fakt, recorded its best annual result. Profit totaled 571 million euros on sales of 2.73 billion euros. One reason for Springer's earnings success is that despite the advent of online newspapers, Germany's print newspaper audience remains strong. About 72% of Germany's adult population reads a daily print newspaper compared to 34% in the U.S., according to separate studies by Germany's Intermedia and New York-based Scarborough Research. In Germany, newspapers have remained popular among young people as well, with readership in the 18-29 year old age group of 57.3%, compared to just 29% in the U.S. Despite the comparative resilience of newspaper readership in Germany, the long-term trends have publishers worried. The circulation at Springer's Bild, for example, has fallen by more than one million copies over the past decade to 3.3 million. Its transition to the Internet has been at times rocky, however. Management almost closed Bild.de, the paper's Web edition, several years ago because it was losing money and had failed to build a significant audience. The company experimented with a number of strategies, including charging for content, but none worked until it introduced promotions for consumer electronics. With a series of online offers for a "Volkslaptop," or people's laptop, and similar promotions, the site's audience swelled. Today, Bild.de is one of Germany's top news sites. Over the past year, Bild.de, has more than quadrupled its audience to over 3 million unique visitors, according to German research firm Acta. Today, Mr. Döpfner says its clear that the Internet is "the future of journalism." That reality, he says, makes charging for content all the more necessary, though he says that the industry as a whole may need to undergo more pain before it adopts online pay models en masse. "Suffering always helps bring about change," he said. -- ================================ George Antunes, Political Science Dept University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204 Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927 Mail: antunes at uh dot edu *********************************** * POST TO [email protected] * *********************************** Medianews mailing list [email protected] http://lists.etskywarn.net/mailman/listinfo/medianews
