Fairfax delays paywall, dismisses threat from The Guardian

I am surprised and glad they delayed the paywall.

I think if they have an online competitor that does not charge, they could be in serious competitive trouble.

I’ve never minded Hywood before but some of the stuff he’s coming out with is childish and petty. To describe the Guardian as being a strong brand ‘in some suburbs of london’ is the most ridiculous thing i’ve ever heard when he knows full well it is number 3 in the world!!

I hope they take significant market share from Fairfax and News as with this type of arrogant attitude, this is all they deserve

Guardian is the favoured paper of all cross-worders across Europe . . .

…….. and originally a Manchester paper

Words that will come back to haunt Mr Hywood. Proof that Fairfax still thinks it’s the only planet in the solar system. Such arrogance, such disresepect.

Guardian brand will be an easy sell to agencies. Given that agency-land is peppered with our British ex-pat friends, I see the uptake being faster than Fairfax would ever imagine.

The Australian Guardian will do minimum damage to Fairfax and News. It’s more likely to take eyeballs from dedicated leftie sites such as Crikey,New Matilda and the Global Mail, the first two of which get by on the smell of a proverbial oily rag while the third’s staffers seem to be at continual war amongst themselves.
Fairfax has pretty much given up on any sort of partisan politics now that its hardcorce leties, led by David Marr, have taken the money and run. Their new Canberra guy, Chris Kenny, picked up from that font of political wisdom the Adelaide Advertiser, is right of centre, if anything. Anyway, going compact, not tabloid, next month means a lighter, brighter approach and less preaching politics as the shift from print to digital gathers pace.
The News sites will simply continue to be well right of centre, especially the Australian where corporate types who specialise in sacking staff while collecting massive bonuses are written up as heroes of the nation.
This is the age of fragmentation where you can have your opinions, or prejudices, reinforced on any number of platforms in any number of ways. The disillusioned hard line lefties will no doubt find such gratification at our version of the Guardian and as long as its quality arts and sports stuff is also readily available it will do okay. But the overwhelming majority of internet users, who are more interested in Taylor Swift’s latest love disaster than Julia’s on-going political disasters, won’t give a hoot.

Whatever he thinks of The Guardian, he knows an SMH / Age paywall now is a non-starter.

And with digital revenues down, there’s more pain to come.

Hywood needs to explain what he is doing. There is no future in a strategy where revenue keeps falling and costs keep chasing the gap. It is pathetic that he is simply flaccid in the face of such obvious disintegration.
The fact that he thonks he can diss the guardian is a sign of his poor understanding of his own job.

Fairfax have a distinct advantage over News because they don’t have a pay wall on SMH and the Age etc. My advice is don’t do a pay wall or as a consumer the Guardian or any other free news source are looking good. News Ltd already know this, although they won’t admit it, their online readership is less than it’s Fairfax counterparts. The mass consumer will always move to free online news sources…

From the ABC today:

“Fairfax is planning to introduce metered paywalls for its Sydney Morning Herald and The Age websites later this year, with paywalls for international users to be thrown up in March, and domestic paywalls rolled out over the following months. The Guardian announced in January that it plans to launch its own Australian-focused site later this year, which is likely to provide its content for free, in line with the media brand’s global approach…

Mr Hywood defended allegations that Fairfax was stepping back from its commitment to political coverage, and claimed the paywalls would not radically affect most readers’ experience of Fairfax sites. He said that Fairfax is still working out the number of free articles readers will be allowed to access a month, but the plan is to force only heavy users of the site to subscribe.

‘We think it will probably impact 10 per cent of our readership,’ Mr Hywood said.

‘We think it will probably impact 10 per cent of our readership,’ Mr Hywood said.

I think Mr Hywood is in for a big surprise! Many heavy users of the Herald Sun website never went back after the paywall, they simply switched to something else. I’m a heavy user of the Age website and I’ll switch to other sources.

Mr Hywood defended allegations that Fairfax was stepping back from its commitment to political coverage, and claimed the paywalls would not radically affect most readers’ experience of Fairfax sites.

Really? Have you been on the Fin Review – AFR.com.au site? You get nothing but the first sentence of the article…

Surely, someone in this industry can innovate and think outside the box.

The internet has provided free information and content for a long time, but now, because these publications can’t make money, they want the consumer to pay and provide information about their lives so this data can be used to market to them

I might be Robinson Crusoe on this one, but I’d be happy for the SMH to be paywalled if it meant the website reversed course and went upmarket instead of getting trashier by the month. At the moment you have to sift through the ever-increasing volume of ‘offbeat’ stories, iPhone news, lurid overseas crime and assorted other clickbait to find the one or two articles that are actually worth reading. If the new revenue from subscriptions means it’s a bit more NYT and a bit less Buzzfeed, sign me up.

I asked a younger colleague of mine today (23 year old) the following questions:

Have you ever purchased a printed newspaper:
– No never. The only time I have really used one is on Melbourne Cup Day in the TAB

Would you pay to read news online?
– Why would I do that?! (yes the person exclaimed and thought I was mental).

Now, that was my very brief survey, only using one young adult. What about the 16 year old, will they ever pay for news?

The person also commented along the lines of: Hold on, so an online paper is funded by advertisers right? That brings in loads of cash and for the user can clutter up their pages? Then Fairfax, or News etc want to charge me to read the adverts? Pfffffffffft.

The Guardian is painted out by the hillbillies to be some sort of communist paper. It is not. The sport coverage is absolutely excellent. It’s coverage of the arts is fantastic. The Guardian is all about quality. I am not a leftie, however I love reading the Guardian, which is a fact; not an assumption. Arrogance and assumptions, in business, leads to failure. Greg Hywood, it is up to you to sir, to ‘brush off’ or face facts. The Guardian is coming. (I wonder what their AFL coverage will be like?) 🙂

I used to read The Australian six days a week and read it on line foe updates. When they introduced a pay wall I stopped buying the paper and turned my attention to the SMH. If Fairfax introduce a pay wall I will also stop buying their newspaper and reading it on line too. There are plenty of fish in the sea.