News Corporation's CEO Outlines Evolution of Paid Online Content
Speaking at the Monaco Media Forum last Friday, chairman and CEO of News Corporation James Murdoch outlined the evolution of paid online content.
"If you're going to monetise something, you should probably not give it away for free. We're happy to invest more in a product and happy to price it fairly and accept the fact that not everyone will consume it. In our newspaper business we're happy to have fewer customers who are much more engaged," he commented.
Mr Murdoch explained that because the competitiveness of the media landscape is changing, the economics of newspapers must evolve: "Once everything is digital, the economics of digital newspapers will look more like cable TV channels: they'll have affiliate revenue or wholesale revenue across a wide subscriber base, and then they can compete for audiences and sell advertising. I think that's a good model."
Murdoch described his strategy for News Corp further by saying, "You need to be able to invest in more technology and more content. We need to differentiate ourselves in our products at a faster pace and to a greater degree than we've ever done before... In the next ten years, if we can really transform the pace and scale of that investment, and do it around the world, that's something that will really pay big dividends for us."