Murdoch is one such person, with a gargantuan media empire to steer the industry in a direction [he's not one to hide the fact that he's tried to shape agendas by supporting certain policy] that best suits his intended outcome. Frankly, a bit unnerving as a person who gets information from many sources, you have to look back at who the provider of that information is. Further back than may be practical. Like Starbucks opening ‘local’ stores that are still Starbucks piping money out of the local industry and funneling it to its HQ’s. What information is fact? What is just opinion being represented as fact?
So, should Murdoch’s policy show profitability, others may follow, but right now people are hedging in the other direction. “I Want Media” created a poll, and some publishers have decided to not set a policy of pay-for information exchange. Advertising supported sites will probably be the first location that the population goes to. Paid sites may have more professional delivery of news with highly paid journalists who do a lot of due diligence, but the exchange of information has always been under the same process as business. That means, whatever is the most efficient will win, unless set upon by government policy, monopolistic practices, or pure illegal practice.
So, as I recently wrote in a paper to be delivered tonight; Print primarily gave way to Radio, Radio gave way to TV, and all of them gave way to the Internet. Did the world end in any case? No; Never. But, as people move from the less efficient technology to the more efficient technology, the costs and the profitability of, said technology will increase and either advertising costs will increase or pay-for-play will become in vogue. It isn’t that hard to imagine.
One interesting side note that I discussed with others was the fact that the exchange of information will always take place, a blog is nothing more than a person speaking aloud with friends are a restaurant about an article and someone else overhearing it and they taking it to other people and so on, and they tell their friends, and repeat. Now however, you have greater context, faster exchange, more relevance. It simply gains quality in the idea exchange, the inclusion of opinion to a greater degree, and it makes the discussion of any given topic; less open to interpretation since the text is there in front of you. I’m going to coin the term “Metagraphics” which is a combination of Demographics, Psychographics, and Geographics; as written in the TECHNORATI by Stephen Baker, the DNA of a persons can be quantified and qualified. I believe THAT is going to be key in the next 100 years to develop a relationship and grow revenue off of knowing what your customer wants, and showing a customer that they need something you are offering.
More to come…