WWMMD – What Would Media Moguls Do?

: Image by Getty Images via Daylife

AdAge’s Andrew Hampp chronicled s a recent National Cable & Telecommunications Associates panel in which ‘media moguls’ like Rupert Murdoch talked about their answers to paid content moving forward. While HBO is working on an online on demand product, Murdoch and News Co. has plans to create their own e-reader, sounding eerily similar to the Kindle.

News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch said in a keynote interview with Fox Business News reporter Neil Cavuto that preserving the Journal’s subscription model online has been one of the biggest no-brainers since he acquired the financial newspaper in 2007.

“The question is, Should we allow Google to steal our copyrights? The paper has no trouble in charging $60 to $100 a year solely for the website. We’ve got about 1 million people doing that, and it’s not a gold mine, but it’s not bad,” he said.

But in order to maintain loyalty among readers who get their news online, on their BlackBerries and, increasingly, their Kindles, News Corp., which is also the parent of Fox News, is developing its own e-reader for newspapers, one with a larger screen to better emulate the print experience. “You can update it, leave it by your bed at night and there’s your newspaper,” Mr. Murdoch said.

The problem with Murdoch’s WSJ example is this, and forgive me for stealing the term from someone else I can’t recall right now. A WSJ subscription is an ‘expense account purchase,’ plain and simple. The real test applies to general interest magazines and newspapers that perhaps don’t have a direct effect on the business world.

What’s equally puzzling and frustrating is the notion that News Co. thinks they can develop the hardware necessary to provide a quality user experience. And with other media companies trying to jump into the hardware fray (Hearst, etc…) are we, as consumers, destined to have four or five ‘e-readers,’ plus the netbook, cell phone and iPod.

It’s simply not realistic.

But, with that said, competition fuels innovation, so may the best media ‘mogul win. I just hope that consumers aren’t the losers.

Rupert Murdoch wants in on the e-book action (engadget.com)
Rupert Murdoch comments on Google | Technovia (tsurch.com)
Open Thread: Should Newspapers Charge for Online Content (gigaom.com)

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This entry was posted on Monday, April 6th, 2009 at 2:33 am and is filed under magazines, newspapers, next big thing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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