For a long time, printing a newspaper or running a TV station was equated with having a license to print money. It was never really that simple, as the bones of bankrupt publishers and broadcasters will attest. But now the media financial universe has been turned upside down, and there aren't many making any profit at all, much less big ones. There are lots of people visiting newspaper websites, but they're usually not paying a dime, and advertisers haven't been as willing to pay for online ads as they were with the dead tree products.
There are exceptions to the "no-pay" model. In Alabama, both The Anniston Star and The Decatur Daily charge for access to their full online product. The Daily is a family-owned paper that just acquired The Times Daily in Florence, which does not charge. We'll be watching to see which model the new owners impose on their new product.
This week's CBS Sunday Morning included a report on the dire condition of newspapering, and predicted that "micro payments" may be the solution. You can see all of the headlines, but pay a minimal amount...maybe a dime...to actually read the story. That's the model many papers have used for access to their archives, though they generally charge more than a dime.
[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of this blog.]
[UPDATED ON 4/1/09: The new owners appoint a former Montgomery Advertiser Publisher to head the Times Daily]
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