

David Simon: Newspapers could emulate HBO and charge for content - rms
http://www.niemanlab.org/2009/04/david-simon-newspapers-could-emulate-hbo-in-charging-for-content/

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boundlessdreamz
Isn't this the exact business model of magazines like NewYorker and Economist?

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_pius
Yes.

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knightinblue
_part of the HBO model is you can’t sell crap. If it’s not the best out there,
no one’s gonna put up money for it._

This is exactly why the subscription model will fail. It's practically
impossible for the newspapers, even the big ones, to constantly churn out
material thats worth paying for.

If subscriptions really do happen, a few people will just get subscriptions
and put up their own versions of <http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheat-sheet/>
for the rest of the people by rewording, massaging and summarising news
without any attribution whatsoever. It's a fallacy to think anyone can really
control content delivery online.

P.S. To be fair, the analogy is a slight bit off - not everything on HBO is
worth paying for either. But the difference is that noone can rip off HBO
shows while anyone can rip off the NYTimes. If there's a need for it.

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gabrielroth
David Simon: Very good at making television, not so great at coming up with
business plans for newspapers.

Seriously, if this idea were being proposed by anyone who didn't make 'The
Wire,' I find it hard to imagine that Hacker News would find it worth our
attention.

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_pius
_Seriously, if this idea were being proposed by anyone who didn't make 'The
Wire,' I find it hard to imagine that Hacker News would find it worth our
attention._

Yeah, but it _was_ proposed by the creator of "The Wire," so here we are. :)

David Simon was waaaaay out in front of this issue. Way back in 2006 he chose
the demise of the newspaper industry as the theme of the final season of The
Wire and covered it critically before the whole "Newspapers Are About to Die"
meme was getting any traction outside journalism trade circles.

That's not to say he's got all the answers, but the guy's certainly been
thinking about the problem for quite some time and it's interesting to hear
his perspective.

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gyeh
The "Newspapers Are About to Die" message has been repeated over and over
again since the mid 90's. Because of the recent high-profile closings/cost-
cuttings of newspaper organizations, the last 15 years of gloomy
prognostications have essentially become reality (mainly precipitated by the
current economy).

Similar to Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid and global warming, these are
train-wrecks that can be seen miles and miles way. Unfortunately for
newspapers, it seems they are in the middle of one.

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eli
Yes, newspaper readership has been declining for some time, but ad revenues
didn't really start to tank until the past few years
([http://www.npr.org/blogs/globalpoolofmoney/images/2009/04/pa...](http://www.npr.org/blogs/globalpoolofmoney/images/2009/04/papers_big.png))

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eli
It's getting to the point where proposing a new solution to the newspaper
industry's problems is like posting a clever "new" solution to end spam. Odds
are it's neither clever nor new.

Someone needs to come up with a Final Ultimate Solution to the Newspaper
Problem Response form based on <http://www.claws-and-paws.com/fussp.html>

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brandnewlow
Beware of reporters proposing business ideas.

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eli
They're as bad as the developers!

