Comments on: UK Media Tussle: Guardian Editor Fires Back At Rivals

By: tysapsford

tysapsford — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 19:09:10 +0000

Content value within the digital world will continually change and in changing present challenges and opportunities. New entrants can and do quickly redefine content access routes and in doing so change the value that may be extracted. If this is Alan’s letter (email), it appears to signal an individual who understands that value is created and derived in ever more complex models. Alan has outlined that the introducing of content barriers to aid transactional value is unproven and counters the paradigm that is the digital platform. Not seen before commercial gains have been made by organisations that have leveraged the contextual value of content on the digital platforms, such as Google, Facebook, Twitter. Whether these organisations continue to derive commercial value will depend on their establishing new content value models, such as semantic driven information (semantic web). The newspapers are content based organisations and from the letter it seems Alan recognises this, by focusing on why does our content have value (mixing editorial and commercial perspectives) and how might this value be best sustained (by being open to change). If this is Alan’s letter, then from someone in digital, but not newspapers, it bodes well for newspapers and Alan.

By: Patrick King

Patrick King — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 14:10:13 +0000

Alan is if nothing else very articulate – but he does seem to be believing his own propaganda.

The Guardian was, is and I trust will continue to be a fine organ. I suggest that Alan and indeed Ms. Wade down at Wapping and Comrad Lebedev and their peers across the industry accept that they no longer have newspaper businesses. Whet they own and control are mass media publishing organisations in a state of transition towards on-line information service providers. They need to stop thinking like newspaper prorietors and begin to act more like Telco execs. Survival will be down to mind-set and culture as well as quality content and dynamic business models.

Patrick King
Atypon Systems Inc.

By: Jim Cremin

Jim Cremin — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 05:20:48 +0000

Fascinating article; Alan’s bluster is admirable and enjoyable, but fundamentally what News Corp is doing has to be correct, and Alan’s stance arguably hasn’t taken full account of the changing financial climate, and growing realisation that a free ride can’t be sustained long-term. Getting boxed into positions has to be fundamentally mistaken, although his nods at ‘learning from each other’, I suppose, is a start! And, as ever, impressive independence from a subsidiary in paidcontent. Great stuff Rob. Jim (Racing Post staffer)