Journalism is free

News International have embarked on an interesting project: From June they will charge users to access The Times and Sunday Times websites a small fee to view content.

"Readers will be offered a week’s subscription for £2, or a day’s access for £1, to two new sites, www.thetimes.co.uk and www.sundaytimes.co.uk. 

Rupert Murdoch has been saying for a long time that quality news and journalism should not be given away free. He's right; journalist's deserve to be paid for their work. What he's wrong about is who should pay. Does he think that because people currently pay for newspapers that people should expect to pay for online news as well? It's chalk and cheese. Two completely different products with differing user experiences and demands. When I view a story online I demand pictures, audio and / or video. I'm not interested in just a text article. This has the potential to be the premium offering the industry needs, but instead the industry thinks it needs to cover everything (in less detail) and reduce the amount of resources used on investigative journalism. The end product is neither premium nor what the user demands.

News has been undervalued for a long time; from hourly news on the radio to several dedicated 24 hour news channels consumers can access a variety of news sources for free and at their convenience. How many copies of Metro (a free paper) are handed out each morning? How many free online news sites already exist?

Print cannot compete with that.  It's yesterday's news, but news papers can compete online.  Here it's a level playing field, except they have the advantage of old media behind them.  They have resources, they have experienced journalists, they have sources, they have followers and still they want to charge for access!  If I was in charge I would be supporting my news site through dedicated advertising (it can be done just look at internet TV).  I would look to consolidate the industry - how many digital editions of the same news do we really need? I'd ask these question:
What is it that my news paper offers that would get users to pay?
Why would I the pay to access old news online?

The question News International should be asking is how we can generate revenue from our existing users? What additional services can we provide that users will pay for?

This saga will continue to run and I'm sure News International will sacrifice some of it's best known titles as it hunts for the holy grail.

What do you think, will you pay to access The Times?

The Guardian News App

The Guardian have recently released an iPhone App [iTunes Link] priced at £2.39 and for this small free they are promising to make news available to you on your iPhone for free.  What's more, the App offers off-line viewing, something that really is worth paying for.

So how does this compare to The Guardian's mobile site?
I have to admit that I was dubious about how good this App could be, given that the mobile site worked very well and The Guardian provide most (if not all) of their stories via RSS, therefore, do we need to spend £2.39.  The short answer is YES!
The UI is pretty and uncomplicated, the product does what it's supposed i.e. serve up news and with off-line reading I can load the paper before I board a flight and read on board.  

Pictured below is the home screen which is customisable:

By scrolling to the bottom of the home screen users are presented with photo galleries and the option to read selected columnists:

The App also provides trends and offers a screen dedicated to the most viewed news stories on The Guardian:

One interesting aspect of the App is that it offers the user the opportunity to listen to the latest Guardian podcasts, right within the App:

Sometimes you might just want to browse more sections and you can do that very easily:

Granted there is nothing really new here, everything that is provided I could have read / listened elsewhere, but isn't that the point? With this App I get it all in one place and The Guardian have made a significant statement: users are prepared to pay to access news.  The challenge for the industry is to replicate this and whether charging for the App and offfering free content there after is sustainable.  At the time of writing The Guardian App was the highest grossing application in the iTunes Store which would suggest a sizeable proportion of iPhone / iPod Touch owners have purchased the App.

I would recommend this App to anyone.

Here is the official Guardian video to promote the App: