Hearst still doesn't get it.

[Manedwolf]

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- Against a backdrop of plummeting ad revenue for newspapers and magazines, and rising costs for paper and delivery, Hearst Corp., is getting set to launch an electronic reader that it hopes can do for periodicals what Amazon's Kindle is doing for books.

According to industry insiders, Hearst, which publishes magazines ranging from Cosmopolitan to Esquire and newspapers including the financially imperiled San Francisco Chronicle, has developed a wireless e-reader with a large-format screen suited to the reading and advertising requirements of newspapers and magazines. The device and underlying technology, which other publishers will be allowed to adapt, is likely to debut this year.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/02/27/technology/copeland_hearst.fortune/

So. Since newspapers don't have the ancient thing called "writers" anymore, people are supposed to want to pay for the same reprint AP feeds they can get direct, and free, on their iPhones, smartphones, blackberries, and everything else.

But with ads.

Yeah, that'll work. Sorry, guys. The whole model is dead.

If you still had WRITERS, maybe. And liberal drooling with unchecked facts and horrible grammar isn't "writers". Ask the NY Times about that. But people aren't going to pay for the same damned feeds that are everywhere. Just launch any aggregator and you can get the same Reuters, BBC, AFP and AP feed they reprint in newspapers.

They haven't realized that yet. I wonder if some of the execs don't even realize that the public can do that?

[freedom lover]

In other news... the Kindle looks awesome. I saw the interview Charlie Rose conducted with Amazon's CEO the other day. I wonder if they have GPS chips? If the price ever comes down I will probably get one.

[drewtam]

But people aren't going to pay for the same damned feeds that are everywhere. Just launch any aggregator and you can get the same Reuters, BBC, AFP and AP feed they reprint in newspapers.

They haven't realized that yet. I wonder if some of the execs don't even realize that the public can do that?

You forget that there is a sucker born every minute. And the execs do know that one.

On the whole I completely agree with you. Anybody can get the crappy Reuters and AP feeds. And blogs on the whole can provide better analysis and commentary. The only real advantage a large traditional media has the deep investigative reporting. The kind of scam investigation or crooked politician investigation that two-bit websites can't afford to support.

[Manedwolf]

The only real advantage a large traditional media has the deep investigative reporting. The kind of scam investigation or crooked politician investigation that two-bit websites can't afford to support.

And what papers do that anymore?

[drewtam]

Exactly. So thats why I agree with you. There is no point in buying them, if they don't do that.

[Manedwolf]

Exactly. So thats why I agree with you. There is no point in buying them, if they don't do that.

I think the best description of a modern major newspaper is "yesterday's AP feeds printed on dead trees, with lots of ads". When you look at it that way...

Why do they even print the stocks anymore, at that? It's yesterday's values. Even the cheapest phone can show you 20 minute quotes.

And that's right, IF they had bulldog reporters, it might be worth reading, but...they do not.

[Manedwolf]

More "Seeya, guys, you're done" out today.

Hearst papers to ration free Web content

SAN FRANCISCO, March 1 (UPI) -- Hearst Corp. says its U.S. newspapers will hold back some printed content from their free Web sites as online advertising slows sharply industrywide.

Just how much print newspaper content Hearst will keep off its free Web sites has yet to be determined, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday. Cablevision Systems Corp. said last week it plans to turn the free Web site for its Newsday daily into a subscription site.

"Exactly how much paid content to hold back from our free sites will be a judgment call made daily by our management, whose mission should be to run the best free Web sites in our markets without compromising our ability to get a fair price from consumers for the expensive, unique reporting and writing that we produce each day," Steven Swartz, Hearst Newspapers president, said in a staff memo obtained by the Journal.

The financial impact is unclear because there are no existing comparable models. But many newspapers have seen their online advertising slow sharply or shrink while most sell less than half -- and some far less than that -- of the available ad slots on their Web sites, the Journal said.

http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2009/03/01/Hearst_papers_to_ration_free_Web_content/UPI-51681235914755/

Just close, already. Buggy whips!