I believe this will be the third time the Globe is attempting to get readers to pay for online content. Google will continue to eat their lunch. A couple of search terms can get you any content you want — including the stuff the G&M thinks people will pay for.
They have no choice. Sooner or later, all the dailies will do this. Otherwise, there is no business. Online ads just don’t make up enough of the pie, like print ads used to. The only other way to make up for it is through subscription. That, or let your significance whither. There are people who will pay……nobody thought people would pay for downloaded music, yet they do.
I wouldn’t call them dead……..yet.
(And, btw, comparing G&M to sites like Talking Points Memo is unfair. First, it’s nowhere near as in-depth as G&M and covers only politics, with no local coverage. And it’s easier to turn a profit in the US because you don’t need a large percentage of the population to get significant ad dollars. In Canada, the same percentage garners much less cash, with which they have to cover a much larger place. The comparision doesn’t wash.)
Note to Globe and Mail:
I really didn’t think I’d have to tell you this.
You are not the New York Times.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. And I want $15 from you for reading this.
And the NYT has lost hundreds of millions in recent years, pay wall or not.
It gives me no pleasure to say that all this stuff is the equivalent of newspaper rigor mortis.
Talking Points Memo is profitable, serves an audience 10x as large, and has 1/100th of the cost footprint of the Globe.
I believe this will be the third time the Globe is attempting to get readers to pay for online content. Google will continue to eat their lunch. A couple of search terms can get you any content you want — including the stuff the G&M thinks people will pay for.
They have no choice. Sooner or later, all the dailies will do this. Otherwise, there is no business. Online ads just don’t make up enough of the pie, like print ads used to. The only other way to make up for it is through subscription. That, or let your significance whither. There are people who will pay……nobody thought people would pay for downloaded music, yet they do.
I wouldn’t call them dead……..yet.
(And, btw, comparing G&M to sites like Talking Points Memo is unfair. First, it’s nowhere near as in-depth as G&M and covers only politics, with no local coverage. And it’s easier to turn a profit in the US because you don’t need a large percentage of the population to get significant ad dollars. In Canada, the same percentage garners much less cash, with which they have to cover a much larger place. The comparision doesn’t wash.)