It was a foregone conclusion that online editions of newspapers had (and have) to start charging money, otherwise they will not be around in any capacity. If newspapers start going out of business, how are we going to get those useless England managers fired? How else would we find out what is happening in the lives of Simon Cowell, Cheryl Cole and John Terry.

You have to applaud newspapers in many ways – for example, just look at how journalists outed former ministers recently. There is a sense of justice and prevail. At the moment the nationals still have the ability to influence us in a way that the Internet still cannot reach.

I congratulate Rupert Murdoch and News International for this move as quite simply something had/has to be done to preserve the newspaper industry as a whole.

In reality, why should it be expected that any one of us is able to read the content of a newspaper publication for free, just because it is online? If you think about it you are hardly likely to turn up at your local newsagents and read the whole paper through without somebody saying something to you.

Quality Journalism

Much as though I love the blogosphere, I am afraid it does not compensate for quality journalism and in my humble opinion the British newspaper industry does contain its fair share of quality journalists.  Yes there are journalists who wind people up, but there are many respected commentators who should continue to be at the forefront of delivering opinion. Obviously I could easily tap into a blog, but come on, it’s just not the same.

Give me News Now!

Much has been made of news aggregators such as NewsNow and even Google News. The majority of leading newspapers now prevent themselves from having their content aggregated by these services.

If you work in the digital world of web design and SEO you would have to of been on the moon to not know that Google and Rupert Murdoch have been embroiled in a spat about ‘taking’ content for some time. Again this is an aspect that I do not disagree with, but then if only a headline and snippet is being displayed surely it would be in the interests of a newspaper to draw visitors in and then look to have them subscribe to their unique content.