ANALYSIS:n the eyes of many, Rupert Murdoch saved newspapers when he broke the London print unions in 1980s. Now, he is bidding to do it again, writes MARK HENNESSY
THE PLAN has been carefully prepared, but the outcome is far from certain. The Rupert Murdoch-controlled News International group has decided to start charging online readers of the London Timesand the Sunday Timesfrom June, despite the declared reluctance of readers to pay for anything online.
From then on, the two papers will have separate websites – rather than sharing one at the moment – and the public will be asked to pay either £1 a day, or £2 a week, though those who have signed up for a home-delivered print subscription of the papers will be able to get online access as part of their entitlement.
“Taking this step is a risk, but it is less of a risk than we are currently taking, because at present we are sending the message to our readers that we value our journalism, but online it’s worthless,” said James Harding, editor of the London Times yesterday.
“We don’t think it’s worthless and I don’t think our readers do either, so I’m sure they will be prepared to pay what is a really reasonable price.”
The papers’ current website, Times Online, has 1.22 million daily readers, though over 20 million different ones sample its content every month. Only a fraction of these can be expected to sign up for a subscription service but the number, if sufficiently large, will be more attractive to advertisers because they are likely to spend more time online if they are paying for it, than if they are just browsing.
The model, of course, is iTunes, where people now pay hundreds of millions annually for music downloads and iPhone Apps.
Even if just 5 per cent of the occasional online readers of the Times and the Sunday Timessign up, it would produce £1.8 million a day in revenues if people bought the daily £1 pass, though the revenue would be much lower if they purchase the weekly option.
In reality, News International is betting that readers will opt for the cheaper weekly service: “There is no track record anywhere of people being prepared to pay £1 a day for online, but that is not what News International are trying to do,” Charlie Beckett, of the London School of Economics’ department of media and communications, told The Irish Times yesterday.
“They are trying to set the agenda in a decisive way. This is the biggest gamble that Rupert Murdoch has taken since he went to Wapping [when he opened new printing presses and instituted new working practices to the fury of printing unions in January 1986]. That was massively successful, but this is a totally different situation. They have done their research, but even they don’t know if it will work,” Mr Beckett declared.
Every media company is playing with different ideas. The Financial Timesand the Wall Street Journal– both with business readers – have successful online operations, while the New York Times is to try again to charge for its work next year.
The difficulty for the London Times and the Sunday Timesis that their readership base is more mixed.
“Readers of the FT online do it to make money,” said Mr Beckett.
Le Monde in Paris is to offer an all-in package subscription to its print, web and iPhone editions from next week for €19.90 per month for the first three months, and €29.90 thereafter, while The Irish Times now offers a digital copy of the print edition for €1.80 for a single day to €9 for one month, €25 for three months and €89 for a year.
So far, the Guardian has built up the strongest reputation for its internet content, though its online readership figures, surprisingly, perhaps, fall behind those of the Daily Mail.
All media organisations have struggled to make money from web advertising: “The Guardian has been making enough money to cover the costs of the website, but not enough to cover the costs of the content that goes onto it,” Mr Beckett told The Irish Times.
