Friday, May 27, 2005
A Nascent News Business Model?
The Wall Street Journal to Provide Editorial Content to The Washington Post
The Washington Post will run select business articles from The Wall Street Journal, starting June 1.
Ironically, today I was explaining to someone why, while I subscribe to The Washington Post print edition, I rarely read it. One of my reasons was the lousy business coverage. (Plus the abysmally boring writing that can be found throughout the paper.)
Perhaps we'll see the 'national papers' focusing their editorial teams on key 'specialty' content (business, sports, arts, etc.), and syndicating that content widely, while buying in content where they're weak. Each paper would have 'complete' coverage, but only generate a portion of that content themselves.
As a lifelong b2b media person, I know the power of focusing editorial resources on a single market space. General consumer newspapers haven't had the luxury of that kind of focus--they have to cover everything. That costs a lot, and doesn't allow much depth.
I've been doing a lot of thinking about the paid vs free content. Fact-based news stories are commodities--no one's going to pay for these, because you can get fact-based stuff just about anywhere. But insight, knowledge, depth of analysis, understanding, wisdom--those kinds of things will always be worth money.
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The Washington Post will run select business articles from The Wall Street Journal, starting June 1.
Ironically, today I was explaining to someone why, while I subscribe to The Washington Post print edition, I rarely read it. One of my reasons was the lousy business coverage. (Plus the abysmally boring writing that can be found throughout the paper.)
Perhaps we'll see the 'national papers' focusing their editorial teams on key 'specialty' content (business, sports, arts, etc.), and syndicating that content widely, while buying in content where they're weak. Each paper would have 'complete' coverage, but only generate a portion of that content themselves.
As a lifelong b2b media person, I know the power of focusing editorial resources on a single market space. General consumer newspapers haven't had the luxury of that kind of focus--they have to cover everything. That costs a lot, and doesn't allow much depth.
I've been doing a lot of thinking about the paid vs free content. Fact-based news stories are commodities--no one's going to pay for these, because you can get fact-based stuff just about anywhere. But insight, knowledge, depth of analysis, understanding, wisdom--those kinds of things will always be worth money.
