News Ltd unveils Penbo’s Punch
News Ltd’s new online comment site The Punch launched last night, and editor David Penberthy revealed that part of the site could become a subscription model.
The Punch, which features the stripped down look of a blog, features a mixture of political and general commentary from a roster of staff and guest columnists.
And in a guest posting for Mumbrella, Penberthy revealed: “It is a free site but down the track may examine a subscription model – not to bar readers from continuing to access it unless they pay, but to offer additional premium content for a reasonable fee.”
And in a posting on The Punch itself, he added: “If we ever did decide to charge a subscription, the fee would be reasonable, and would involve offering additional premium content, rather than blocking readers from accessing the existing site.”
He also revealed: “Later this year, once we’ve got this new-fangled website under control, The Punch will also be a weekly television program of the same name on Sky.”
Early reaction to the launch has been broadly positive. On Twitter, most comments have welcomed it, albeit with some having technical issues looking at the site and others objecting to pre-moderation of comments.
- Mumbrella’s verdict was that launch was successful but not perfect
- Duncan Riley of Inquisitr described it as “not bad, not brilliant
- The Australian’s coverage of The Punch
- Internet Marketing Blog argues:
“Bloggers and journalists must be ‘punch drunk’ if they think using News Ltd banner to further their market reach is a good idea. In reality it just narrows their visibility, viability as an industry and sells out to ‘the man’ bigtime.”
- Ben Shepherd says: “Seems to me News have bought into the hype that media consumption isn’t passive anymore and everyone demands a voice and wants to be heard … which I’m not sure is the case to be honest.”
- Jason Whittaker says:
- “I don’t feel the sense of celebration. Only another missed opportunity by a major media company that just doesn’t get it.”
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I was disappointed to hear that some of the writer’s felt they were ‘building someone else’s empire” as they did not feel completely satisfied with what The Punch was going to achieve for them.
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Nice bit of launch PR work Penbo – declare that you are going to a subsciption based model, everyone jumps in for a free look, and hey presto! – instance audience.
Worked on me – but you wont see a red cent from me for syndicated, un-original content.
If you could throw in nude dwarves on water-skiis – well then you have yourselves a winner.
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The Punch is already revealing its ugly News Ltd origins by breaching the copyright of a citizen journalist.
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