Arkansas Blog

Losing battle.

Someway, sometime, somehow, sooner of later, the news and the paper will separate. It may not be a complete paperless society but it will change 'papers' as we know them. News on the other hand will be of an even greater value.

The only question; how to get the value from the advertisers to the news providers without the paper in the middle? Its happening, and will continue to happen.

You can guard the news from the blogs or charge the bloggers for access for a while but eventually it will evolve into pay for play and the payers will either group themselves to interest or the advertisers will translate access for their customers.

It isn't asserting a copyright to the news, it is asserting a copyright to unique content.

And I have yet to see any hard numbers on linking. People keep touting the "link economy" but where are the numbers that prove "linking builds traffic that supports ad revenue." The assumption is made that it does, but really, that's just an assumption. For context, Wired wrote that online advertising was worth $50 billion, while print/radio/tv advertising was worth $500 billion.

How much ad revenue does linking actually bring in? With the more sophisticated tracking systems, clicking on one story and then going back to the aggregator doesn't seem like it would help that much.
That also assumes that someone scanning the web actually clicks on the link instead of just reading the headline and two or three paragraphs that have been posted.

While purely anecdotal, I rarely click on the links provided to local news stories here. I read the headline, the summation Max put together and move on. I wonder how many other people do the exact same.

>>For one thing, the linking builds traffic that supports ad revenue.<<

I'm sure you mean builds ad revenue for publications. It also builds huge revenues
for google.

If a newspaper wants to kill its online presence then go ahead and exclude a report based
upon proprietary info/value.

But to think that charging for access is going to revive or save traditional newspapers is false.
Nothing they do is going to restore the permanent loss of classified advertising revenue.
It's simply cheaper, faster, better and more penetrating to do it on the web.
.

Max,

That idea of restricting linking to articles by bloggers is pure horseshit.

If newspapers want to put content on paid subscription pages fine. The practice of cutting and pasting complete articles is one thing and not ethical, but this move by the Copyright Fascists is one that will turn the Internet into another Walled Garden, like US Broadcast (OVER THE AIR) television is today.

Hell, these folk's wet dream is restricting folks in Fayetteville from reading this blog, because its not in the "Little Rock Market".