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Copyright by World Economic Forum swiss-image.ch/Photo by Monika Flueckiger
It may be something you take for granted. Every time you open an Internet browser, you can get free news updates. You are able to visit cable news network websites, local national newspaper websites (the ones that are left), and sites like OpEdNews, Huffington Post, AlterNet, or even Townhall.com.
But like the free tap water you took for granted as a child, which is now bottled and sold for a pretty penny, the free Internet news some grew up being able to get whenever they wanted may, in the not-so-distant future, cost a pretty penny.
That is, if über capitalist extraordinaire Rupert Murdoch is able to get his way.
According to a story posted on RAW STORY, Murdoch “believes media sites can’t survive failing business model”:
The billionaire CEO of News Corporation, Rupert Murdoch, is sounding the death knell for free Internet news delivery.
At least for Fox News and the many other online media outlets Murdoch controls.
With traditional print newspapers on the decline as ad sales plunge and readers turn to the Web for news and information, media companies are struggling to find ways to profit.
Murdoch feels that, despite the global economic turndown, charging for access to news is not only the right thing to do, it’s the wave of the future…
…Murdoch is so bullish on the near future that he expects moves to charge readers at the websites of Fox News, The Times, The Sun and others within a year’s time.
“We’re absolutely looking at that,” says the Australian-born media titan.
“The current days of the [free] Internet will soon be over.”
One year ago, I doubt anyone would have believed a company, business, or corporation could charge users for news. Most news sites use advertising revenue to pay for their operations. But, with newspapers collapsing on a seemingly regular basis, the place to get news is rapidly becoming the Internet.
Robert McChesney and John Nichols recently wrote about the current downfall of newspapers in “Finding ways to breathe new life into journalism.”
At one point, the two suggested, “In a nutshell, media corporations, after running journalism into the ground, have determined that news gathering and reporting are not profit-making propositions. So they're jumping ship.”
Where are they "jumping ship" to?
