The August/September American Journalism Review tells how NDN publisher Buck Sherman is trying to build the 12,000 circulation of the print edition by charging an arm and a leg for the online version. A one-year home delivery subscription goes for $145. A mail sub costs $165. AJR reports that Sherman waited patiently for the big city papers to figure out a model in which print and online editions could co-exist. That debate has been going on for about 15 years.
It's only now at crunch time that people like News Corp.'s Rupert Murdoch and NYT publisher "Pinch" Sulzberger are seriously talking about charging for content. (The NYT did run an experiment getting people to pay for access to op-ed columnists but that was dropped.]
The upcoming year stacks up as one of great opportunity and upheaval for the newspaper business.
Sherman believes the pricey NDN pay wall drives readers to the print edition. He admits his strategy may not be everybody’s cup of tea. “He also says current trends in the industry are unsustainable, and that it’s way past time for experimentation, if not radical measures,” reports AJR.
The Newport publisher says change had to start somewhere. AJR reports there are still 43M Americans who subscribe to a daily paper. Circulation is down 13 percent since 1999. “The dawn of the Internet gets some of the blame, of course. But newspaper publishers deserve some of the discredit, too, for giving away their product. Wouldn’t you expect sale of Oreos to fall if Nabisco started handing out free cookies every day,” asks the AJR.
The lid is back on the NDN cookie jar. Win or lose, Sherman deserves accolades for his bold action. If you want to get the local scoop in Newport, Rhode Island, you got to get your hands a little dirty by reading the NDN.
The ball is now in Rupert’s and Pinch’s court.