Recently by Marion Geiger

Guardian Media Group chief executive Carolyn McCall suggested to delgates at FIPP, the World Magazine Congress, that the Guardian is not ruling out charging for more specialist parts of its website in the future. She said that as many publishers rethink their business models, charging for online content that is not easily replicated is one of the solutions that may arise. She mentioned MediaGuardian as an example of a "specialist area" which might be able to charge readers.

News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch just announced that his papers are to charge for online content in the next year, and with the recent founding of Journalism Online LLC which aims to facilitate online payment for news, more papers may well follow.

It seems unlikely that the Guardian is going to follow News Corp down the paid content road in the immediate future, however. GMG Head of Communications Chris Wade explained that the Guardian website is currently "not reviewing its strategy in this area." McCall also pointed out that the strong presence of the BBC might make it harder to persuade users to pay for newspaper content as it provides free news on "every aspect - politics, society, education."

Source: Guardian

Charging for online publications is looking more appealing among publishers as we see News Corporation, and The New York Times Company leaning towards the idea of putting up pay walls either for part or all of their websites.

Tough advocate for paid online content, Rupert Murdoch announced News Corp is considering charging within a year. "That it is possible to charge for content on the web is obvious from the Wall Street Journal's experience," he said in reference to growing WSJ.com subscription revenues. He said that they might start the moves in the next year.

All sectors of the news business have been forced to tighten belts. The great losses in advertising revenue have even infiltrated the annual journalism events, award banquets, and conferences, as a series of cancellations and downsizing have hit the industry.

This spring both the American Society of Newspaper Editors and the Magazine Publishers of America  had to cancel their annual conferences this year, mostly due to likely low turnouts. "We didn't think many people would fly to a resort destination, given what's happening in the business," said MPA spokesman Howard Polskin about the conference, which was supposed to be held in Boca Raton, Florida. Meanwhile, the 16th WORLD EDITORS FORUM has been postponed to 30 November - 3 December.

Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, finally made public the new Kindle DX yesterday at Pace University. Since news got out about the larger e-reader, there has been a wave of discussions on how it could be the salvation of newspapers.

The Kindle DX is marketed for the textbook, newspaper and magazine industries with a wide, 9.7-inch screen. It has enough memory space to hold 3,500 books, which does sound appealing to a student's aching back. However, whether this is really going to save the newspaper industry, remains the big question. Some say it will, others say no, "not a chance."

Even niche and humor media are suffering with the current crisis as we see The Onion has been forced to close its San Francisco and Los Angeles editions. The free weekly daily saw a circulation of 60,000 and 50,000 in each city respectively.

"Let's face it. The traditional model for print is broken," said Maurice Levy, at the FIPP World Magazine Congress in London yesterday. The chairman and chief executive of the advertising giant, Publicis Groupe, stressed that he does not see advertising revenue improving for newspapers and magazines in the next two years.

Instead, Levy believes revenue will continue to shrink and that newspapers should not rely on a comeback after the recession clears. "The current crisis is not the cause of the problems of the media industry, it's just a brutal accelerator and identifier of long-term trends," he said.

The New York Times is expected to raise its cover prices again since they last raised it 11 months ago from $1.25 to $1.50. To try and make up for plummeting advertising revenue, they are expected to raise the newsstand price from $1.50 to $2.00 during the week and from $5 to $6 for the national Sunday edition, effective June 1. The New York edition will cost $5, still a one-dollar increase.

The 33% increase on the weekday newsstand price of the Times comes after the New York Times Company lost $74 million in Quarter 1 due to liquid losses of ad revenue. The Times revenue went down 27% since the same time last year. There is also talk about the New York Times starting to charge for some or all of its online content.

"We don't cover anything unless it's squarely about San Diego, even national trend stories and stuff like that, we tend to steer away from," said Andy Donohue, editor of VoiceOfSanDiego.com, a non-profit, online-only publication focusing on investigative reporting for the San Diego area.

He says that "especially the way things are going right now on the Internet, you've got to be really focused on doing something really well -- and if you try to spread yourself too thin, you're not doing anything well."

Donohue is one of many who say the future of online newspapers is in creating focused beat, niche or hyperlocal media sites. In addition to providing an Internet generation with the news that interests them, hyperlocals are also seen as easy advertising targets as advertisers can aim at particular communities. A Zatso study, "A View of the 21st Century News Consumer," found that seventy-five percent of respondents "said that they wanted news on demand and nearly two out of three wanted personalized news."

The White House said Monday that newspapers should not expect any last minute bailouts from the government. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said in response to a question about whether the Obama Administration would consider a newspaper bailout.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is fighting the online migration of readers with a new campaign, "Unplug. It's Sunday. Discover the new, totally redesigned AJC Sunday," to promote its Sunday edition. The $ 1 million plus campaign includes TV spots, print, radio, mail, outdoor and banner ads.

Ever since news got out regarding Amazon's intention to launch a new and bigger e-reader, eyebrows have been raised across the news business. Many have claimed that the new Kindle, Amazon's e-reader, could save newspapers: analysts are suspicious of these claims.

Brian Caulfield is especially adamant about it when he compares the Kindle to the iPhone. Admitting it is kind of like comparing apples to oranges, he says the Kindle is still too focused on old media, while the iPhone provides access to information across all kinds of mediums.

As papers around the world are carefully trimming costs in as many areas they can think of, the Press Association has come up with an interesting cost cutting tactic: eliminating rent. They plan on closing their West Midlands bureau in Birmingham (UK), at the end of June and have asked the staff to work from home. The company said it will be helping equip the staff with the proper tools and will cover work related Internet and phone use.

TechCrunch writer, Erick Schonfeld, declared online advertising is now officially in a recession. Online ad revenue has been slowing in the past quarters, however this quarter showed the first time revenues are actually declining. The total online advertising revenues were 2 percent lower than a year ago and 7 percent lower than the fourth quarter, wrote Schonfeld.

Poynter Media Business Analyst Rick Edmonds questions the growing movement of print papers to online-only, saying that moving readers to a publication's online version may not work while papers close or stop printing on some days of the week. He suggests that the daily print edition actually promotes the online edition and vice versa. "Maybe that better pumps up Web traffic than trying to force-feed the print audience an online substitute," he wrote.

Although the company says they have faced growing losses in advertising this year, Financial Times' Pearson, says they remain strong and are growing in content, subscription and digital revenues. According to the company, advertising only accounts for about 16 percent of their revenue.