“Media Executives Plan Online Service to Charge for Content ” -New York Times
This is such a hoot I had to look 3 times to make absolutely sure I wasn’t reading an Onion article. This really is an article in the New York Times, and yes, these guys really are beaming proud of themselves for inventing a 10 year old technology to “save” the news industry!
Their company, Journalism Online L.L.C., aims to supply publishers with ready-made tools to charge Internet fees, an idea that has gained currency as advertising revenue plummets, but whose prospects of success are doubted by many media analysts.
Oh! This is the sweetest part:
The company, which says it may have a product ready by the fall…
Hey newspaper CEOs! I have a real S Corporation and I can give you this fancy technology in a couple days! 47.5 hours playing golf and 30 minutes to find the code for protecting content I downloaded in 1999 from the Warrior Forum. And I’ll beat whatever outrageous amount they’re going to charge you by 1/2 – guaranteed!
Rocket Science Spoiler Alert
Now, I can’t understand exactly what they’re talking about here, because I’m not 65 years old and don’t have the Ninja skills to handle their advanced punch card technology, but I think this is a whole new system of password protecting content! Oooo and it’s 3rd party – how sheek!
No publishers have signed on as yet as clients, but several major newspaper and magazine publishers have been in active talks with Journalism Online about how such a system should work.
Yes please tell us of this amazing technology, for we have been so oblivious to the internet since the beginning, we’ve never heard of this freakish ability to lock people out of certain parts of websites until they pay!
I swear, these guys couldn’t be more clueless than if they’d just landed from another planet.
Click here to read about some folks who have a painfully profound grasp of the obvious. It’s cute how serious they are about it, lol.
Related News:
“Newspaper Exec Invents File Transferring Protocol To Magically Upload and Download Files From the Web!” -Oblivious.com
“Former obituary reporter tackles the problem by suggesting paid advertising to support online paper. Immediately promoted to CEO.” -DinosaurBeat.org
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
If there is a charge involved it would certainly help the stimulus package if a percentage went back into restoring banking confidence.
This is hilarious! Not only could they save a ton of money (I’m sure), but, they wouldn’t all look as stupid as they are! Okay, here is the real deal for me though…I have predominately only bought the Sunday paper when I was single and Sunday was a good day to read or if I was getting them for the coupons (when they had worth, and it didn’t cost more for the paper than what I save with 3 or 4 coupons). Honestly, I don’t get the paper and haven’t for years…not just to avoid bad news…but, because they have been failing in so many ways for YEARS! I have two great ideas, again nothing new, but, for them it could be a MAJOR Breakthrought!
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Anissa – your ideas would probably be lost on them.
Hey Jack – you made me chuckle while I was scanning my RSS feeds! This one simply too funny! Considering that right before that I read a piece on Andy Beal’s blog about same.
Next you know they will invent “support forums” for readers of their paid content and I’m sure they will pay a few millions to create te software to someone – I just need to figure out how to put my name in front of them at that moment
Alex
Alex Sysoefs last blog post..Live Webinar Announcement for April 20, 2009
Yeah – wish we’d been in the room when they were talking about how hard it was going to be so we could pick up the $500k project.
This is hilarious. Did you read that they hope to have an iPhone app ready by 2015?
Sharon Wilsons last blog post..What Wants to be Activated in You?
Now, that is funny. I think the subscription model will work for newspapers, especially since the production costs reduce by 95% – and all advertising fees are extra. (BTW, I’m no expert, I saw it on the Jim Lehrer Newshour the other day).