Bad day dawning for newshounds – soon to be no more freebies.

October 2nd, 2009 by tom | Filed under Daily News, Recession, Retail.

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The golden age that has not been long with us looks like it will soon be disappearing into the sunset. That is the era of free access to web content. Media analysts are predicting that within a year more than two thirds of online publications will be on a pay to view basis. This gradual acceptance of the changing sands in media publication represents a major turnaround in thinking from some of the World’s leading publishers of business to business media. Less than two years ago the majority of traditional publishers were vehemently opposed to the idea of paid content.

The UK’s Association of Online Publishers in their annual membership poll, unearthed the fact that around half of their members cent were already charging an access fee for some or all of their websites, with a further 20 per cent expecting to move in that direction in the coming year.

Hardest hit by the effect of the internet and the advertising downturn it has caused are the UK’s newspaper and magazine sectors. Leading media analysts have stated that advertising revenues are expected to fall by more than 20 percent this year for newspapers and 16.3 per cent in. The average of 18 percent compares less than favourably with the almost 11.7 per cent decline in advertising in the UK as a whole.

Setting the trend is media magnate Rupert Murdoch who announced in May that he was looking at pay models for the websites of some his newspapers, among them the Sun and the Times.

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