Murdoch Urges Media to Push for Paid Web Content

By Dena Cassella December 1, 2009

Media companies wishing to thrive in the digital age need to persuade consumers to pay for news online by providing compelling information in any form they want, News Corp. Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch said Tuesday.

Speaking at a two-day workshop on the state of journalism hosted by the Federal Trade Commission, Murdoch said the future is promising for publishers that can adapt to the ongoing migration of audiences and advertisers to the Web.

The key to survival, he said, lies in giving consumers content that they want in the form that they want it — whether that be on a computer screen, mobile device or e-reader — and then charging for it.

“We need to do a better job of persuading consumers that high-quality, reliable news and information does not come free,” Murdoch said. “Good journalism is an expensive commodity.”

News Corp. already charges for online access to The Wall Street Journal and it plans to expand that to other publications. Other publishers are also considering such fees as the growth of online advertising revenue has failed to keep pace with declines in its print counterpart.

Murdoch’s comments were part of a wide-ranging discussion on the profound challenges facing media companies and ways the government can help them survive. Media executives taking part are looking for a new business model, while government officials want to protect a critical pillar of democracy — a free press.

“News is a public good,” FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said. “We should be willing to take action if necessary to preserve the news that is vital to democracy.”

The workshop has drawn speakers from across the traditional and new media landscapes, including Arianna Huffington, co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post Web site; Paul Steiger, former managing editor of The Wall Street Journal; and Len Downie, former executive editor of The Washington Post. Also participating Tuesday and Wednesday were executives from Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. and Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

The fundamental problem facing the media industry, Murdoch said, is that “technology makes it cheap and easy to distribute news for anyone with Internet access, but producing journalism is expensive.”

“Right now there is a huge gap in costs,” he said, adding that the solution is for media companies to charge for content and stop aggregators from “feeding off the hard-earned efforts and investments of others.”

Murdoch called on the government to rewrite “outdated” regulations that limit the number and type of media outlets that one company can own, including rules that prohibit the same company — such as his own — from owning a newspaper and television station in the same market.

These restrictions, Murdoch said, were put in place years ago — long before the Internet exploded on the scene, bringing all sorts of new media voices and platforms.

“Too many of the mechanisms government uses to regulate the news and information business in this new century are based on 20th century assumptions and business models,” he said.

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