The paid-news startup Journalism Online is developing a subscription-based service that will let newspaper publishers charge readers for some of their digital content. There is a great deal of interest in generating online subscriber revenue, thanks to the recession, new competition, and the inability of publishers to use online ad revenue to offset the drop of print ad revenue and print subscribers.
Last week, co-founder Steven Brill presented the Journalism Online business model at the Newspaper Association of America's annual meeting. At the meeting were representatives from the New York Times, Gannett, Scripps, McClatchy, Hearst, and other publishers, and the company has also given personal presentations to other publishers in recent weeks.
Brill claimed in an interview with the Harvard Nieman Journalism Lab blog that his company will announce deals with at least a "couple" of publishers this month. However, it's not known how many publishers will opt to sign on to Brill's plan, as opposed to developing their own product or partnering with another company.
Journalism Online will reportedly launch in the fall.
Prediction: On or before June 30, Journalism Online announces deals with three of the 15 largest daily newspapers in the United States based on daily circulation at the beginning of 2009, as listed on this page.
Image: A stack of newspapers (DRB62/Flickr, creative commons license)
Related predictions:
The New York Times charges readers a web subscription?
One of top 15 daily U.S. newspapers goes web-only?
| Betting Closes: | Jun 29 2009 | Current Consensus: | 11.41% | Total Bets: | 7 |
| Today's Change: | 0% | ||||
| Life Time High: | 48.75% | ||||
| Life Time Low: | 11.41% |
Comments
The community consensus around this prediction just keeps going down. Brill said the announcement would be coming in a June timeframe; why are so many people bearish on this?
Ian Lamont
Managing Editor
The Industry Standard
twitter.com/the_standard
Judged. The community was right -- it didn't happen. At the end of June Brill's venture announced its first deal with ITZ publishing, but it's not clear if ITZ's marquee customers (including dailies in Salt Lake City, Dallas, and Philadelphia) will actually use Journalism Online.
Ian Lamont
Managing Editor
The Industry Standard
twitter.com/the_standard
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