tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1870020290063680623.post1027098277728641781..comments2023-10-24T18:01:52.687+10:00Comments on Terry Flew: Its on - Rupert Murdoch to introduce pay online newsTerry Flewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04077951529916138445noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1870020290063680623.post-67334558524008832302009-08-13T07:00:46.463+10:002009-08-13T07:00:46.463+10:00I attended Shane Rodger's talk at the Brisbane...I attended Shane Rodger's talk at the Brisbane Institute (yeah, I still seem to get free admission whatever QUT's sponsor status) and he seemed to have a different spin on it than Rupert about what the challenges are:<br /><br />http://www.brisinst.org.au/past-issue-details.php?article_id=481<br /><br />According to him, while newspapers in the USA are closing, most of the Oz ones are not so badly off. Indeed, he claims the C-M is doing well on sales of the newspaper, bucking the trend. I notice he did not mention that the C-M is in Australia's fastest growing city, which maybe helps. And the fact that Brisbane does not have a competitor (as a printed newspaper). He also didn't say that the C-M journalism quality is deteriorating by the minute. I am still a 7-day subscriber to the C-M (old habits die hard) so I get my daily dose of "reality TV" news and football :-(<br /><br />But having said all of that that, I think much of what Shane said was fairly honest and probably true. He said there is definitely a market segment that looks for quality journalism (and commented that probably the audience he had that night was all part of it -- probably true enough).<br /><br />I suspect it is all part of the Kerry Raymond theory of 22 million people can only support a finite amount of stuff: 2 major airlines, 2 major supermarkets, etc. I suspect there is a catchment size that can support 1 newspaper and Brisbane is probably at that size.<br /><br />I'd pay more for a daily print newspaper with quality Queensland journalism (when did The Oz last mention the Ekka and until Kevvy became PM, it was like Qld didn't exist in the Syd-Mel-Canb triangle that The Oz reports on) but I fear I am not in the majority with this view. <br /><br />KKerry Raymondhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08950405873309630121noreply@blogger.com