NBR introducing paywall - and blaming bloggers
The story is developing on Computerworld (no I am not going to give NBR link love today):
The National Business Review is planning to lock down around 20% of its web content for the first time from tomorrow.
In a notice to newsletter subscribers, NBR publisher Barry Colman says selected top stories will be available to paid subscribers only.
Colman writes the "madness" of existing media models has seen aggregators profit from the supply of free news copy.
"Worse still the model has spawned a huge band of amateur, untrained, unqualified bloggers who have swarmed over the internet pouring out columns of unsubstantiated 'facts' and hysterical opinion," he writes.
"Most of these 'citizen journalists' don’t have access to decision makers and are infamous for their biased and inaccurate reporting on almost any subject under the sun (while invariably criticising professional news coverage whose original material they depend on to base their diatribes)."
I agree that a certain number of bloggers will parrot stories out of mainstream media. Also that some will have unsubstantiated "facts" and "opinions".
But no one owns the only true point of view, isn't that true?
The other way around is also true. Many times I've been asked by Geekzone users who had posted in our forums and had been contacted by journalists interested in getting more details so they can write stories for their newspapers . Many times I got a scoop and posted here in the blog, just to see it in the technology-dedicated pages of the MSM a few days later.
For example I think it's a great coincidence to have someone talking about IQ Test scams on Geekzone, and seeing a story about IQ Test scams in one of our two main newspapers about 45 days later...
Or the whole New Zealand DIA Internet censorship story - posted here last weekend and in other blogs and now showing up on NBR where they say:
"Bloggers have been immediately dubious about the Department of Internal Affairs’ new filtering programme, officially announced today." and also "Bloggers have noted that the $150,000 for the software only accounts for part of the extra $611,000 extra allocated to the DIA for online enforcement in the budget."
Obviously the NBR thinks bloggers can be good sources too...
UPDATE: Very good analysis with brilliant suggestion by Bernard Hickey.
UPDATE: It will fail.
Other related posts:
This is evil: Google employees accessing competitor’s database to poach customers
Law Commission to regulate new media: submissions open now
Igloo FAQ
Comment by Mitchell Hall, on 16-Jul-2009 17:07
Obviously not everyone at NBR thinks the same, and Barry's opinions are his own.
Clearly there are many bloggers who provide quality content, and NBR is happy to link to them and quote them.
Hope this clears some of the confusion,
Mitchell Hall
Comment by Mitchell Hall, on 16-Jul-2009 17:08
Obviously not everyone at NBR thinks the same, and Barry's opinions are his own.
Clearly there are many bloggers who provide quality content, and NBR is happy to link to them and quote them.
Hope this clears some of the confusion,
Mitchell Hall
Comment by Emma, on 16-Jul-2009 18:14
You're probably in the minority though Mauricio, in terms of news outlets quoting you or getting info through Geekzone.
It's predominantly the other way around.
Only time will tell.
Comment by Ben Kepes, on 16-Jul-2009 18:57
@Emma - bollocks (sorry but it's true). Where does news get broken these days and where do mainstream journalists get intros to stories? From blogs and from Twitter.
The long tail means that, aside from the big visible players, it's the blogosphere that has the ability to really focus on the edge players - if I look at my own case, a company like Xero is never going to attract really close journalistic scrutiny, accounting software is however my primary focus and so I watch their every move - it's for this reason that mainstream media keep a watching brief on what people like Mauricio, Ben Gracewood and the like are saying.
Mainstream media isn't dead, but anyone within it who actually believes that blogging is a amateur, discountable and low-brow cancer upon the world is destined to failure....
Comment by Ben Kepes, on 16-Jul-2009 18:58
@Emma - bollocks (sorry but it's true). Where does news get broken these days and where do mainstream journalists get intros to stories? From blogs and from Twitter.
The long tail means that, aside from the big visible players, it's the blogosphere that has the ability to really focus on the edge players - if I look at my own case, a company like Xero is never going to attract really close journalistic scrutiny, accounting software is however my primary focus and so I watch their every move - it's for this reason that mainstream media keep a watching brief on what people like Mauricio, Ben Gracewood and the like are saying.
Mainstream media isn't dead, but anyone within it who actually believes that blogging is a amateur, discountable and low-brow cancer upon the world is destined to failure....
Comment by ZollyMonsta, on 16-Jul-2009 21:33
Yeah and if that's the case, they never even asked me about my experiences thus far on getting it sorted (I started said thread on Geekzone).
Comment by Gustov, on 16-Jul-2009 21:53
I own a business in a particularly small and specialised industry and from time to time NBR writers and journalists call me for information and quotes to be used in their stories and articles.
I do that willingly and freely (and hopefully its good publicity for me - although I can't measure it financially), so it is a bit rich that NBR now want to charge readers for the information that I give out to them at no cost.
Comment by Dratsab, on 17-Jul-2009 10:02
It's almost hysterically funny that Colman says "citizen journalists" have "biased and inaccurate reporting on almost any subject under the sun" - when the main stream media cleans out it's own cupboards, comments like this may have some credence...
Comment by cyberhub, on 20-Jul-2009 10:10
I think that this is an interesting article as what you have to do is read between the lines. It is obvious that consumers now are not restricted to what the traditional news agents want us to hear or see.
It is true that bloggers are opinionated and biased - who isn't, traditional news sources are all too guilty of this. It is a case that the people are now in a position that we can choose where we get our news/information.
The way it should be!
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Comment by BudgetGeek, on 16-Jul-2009 16:57
I can't believe someone in that position is spouting such tripe.
There are very few people out there who would be confused into thinking the blog they were reading was a substitute for a newspaper or current events magazine.
NBR has it's place (i read a good article there recently with information I couldn't find elsewhere) but blogs have their (more important IMO) place as well.
Hopefully the NZ blogging community finds a more negative way to backlash against them than by just not linking to them...