I hate the New York Times and their pay walls. They are everything that is wrong with the news industry.
Don’t get me wrong I think that large news outlets can play a role in journalism; I just don’t think it will be as big of a role as it used to be. And with the current political climate in the world, that’s just the way it needs to be.
News organizations like The Times cannot stand what the Internet has done to their business model. Their elitist corporate philosophy does not allow them to appreciate innovation in their industry. They also hate that the playing field has been leveled because of the Internet.
To some experts the little guys have more credibility than The Times does. That means something whether you like it or not.
Instead of embracing the age of information, big media corporations like The Times have resisted it. They like to use copyright infringement/enforcement as a way to limit the power of the Internet. They don’t want information to be available unless they can control it and make money off it.
That’s why The Times put up a pay wall on their website. They don’t want people to access the information of the world without being able to make you pay a premium for it.
Of course The Times is well within their rights to make people pay for the information they are providing, but their philosophy is what is killing off the newspaper industry. Instead of embracing digital technology and adapting their business model in a changing marketplace, they have used all of their resources to fight the information age.
Now The Times is bragging about how they’ve added 100,000 digital subscriptions. Yeah whatever, 100,000 news consumers who don’t know that there are better places to get their news from.
And most these places don’t make you pay an outrageous fee to access their information. And you know what? They find a way to stay in business somehow.
The Times new digital business model isn’t going to last. I don’t necessarily think that The Times should give their content away for free, but the digital subscription method is unsustainable for the long term.
Plus, I want them to fail.
I want them to fail because they are an establishment news organization. There is really no difference between the government and The Times. If you paid attention during the buildup to the wars in the Middle East (mainly Iraq and Afghanistan) then you’d know that big media corporations like The Times were basically leading the charge for US to get involved in these wars.
The biggest most respected “journalism” organization didn’t offer an alternative perspective. They only allowed one viewpoint in their publications.
Again they have the right to do that, but it goes against the spirit of American Liberty. America was founded on the principals of a free and open press.
I also think that pay walls and lawsuits from big media corporations like The Times are scare tactics. They are actions that are supposed to make people afraid to share things with other people. Technology has given people the ability to share any kind of information they could possibly want, with people located all over the world, and The Times is trying to stop it.
I think that sucks, and that’s why I want The Times’ digital subscription service to fail. It will fail, just watch. They won’t keep signing people up for their digital service at this rate, and their profit margins are going to suffer.
Big media corporations will have to change their philosophy if they want to survive. If not they will go under.
We’ll be just fine without them.
