Quality costs, it's as simple as that

Telegraph: Shane Richmond at May 13, 2009
http://tinyurl.com/q5okpc sparks another debate on paid for news.

I think this is a huge issue that needs to be debated and quickly. Newspapers are struggling to find a viable business model online and it should concern us all. With out quality professional journalism our democracy will fail. bloggers and amateur journalists are not an answer to the well funded and resource strong news papers.

Reading news online is very different to paper format. users have a fragmented approach to their content. One minute they could be on The Economist website, then off to Telegraph, Guardian, WSJ, Washington Post, NY Times and so on Regular subs for one paper doesn't work as who wants their online news from one source.

A good model to look at would be a portfolio subscription model. So the more you consume the more you pay. Some users dip into a few articles a day and others read lots. The subscription could work against link models and a reimbursement model for each paper.

I do think that some of our license fee should go towards funding journalism and local news and not just to the BBC. This should be monitored and controlled by an independent press authority away from the BBC, government and media companies influence.

Like the credit crunch we now have to pay for the free content binge we have all taken for granted. I always hear people saying good riddance to old media, well be careful what you wish for as new media is uncontrolled, under funded and a poor substitute for professional journalism.