Comments on: Paywall site Ongo, backed by NYT and WaPo, folds after 16 months

By: Cynthia Typaldos

Cynthia Typaldos — Thu, 10 May 2012 10:44:18 +0000

Yes, gotta agree. It was just weird how the newspapers put millions of $ into Ongo and then did everything to make sure it could not succeed. Sad for Kazim; I’m sure he and his team worked very hard and with great dedication.

By: Greg Golebiewski

Greg Golebiewski — Wed, 09 May 2012 10:18:16 +0000

It is not the idea (even though I know solutions better than paywalls), but poor execution that failed Ongo.

It is amazing that the newspapers behind Ongo invested millions in the project, and then started their own paywalls or advocated against them, as WoPo did — such a waste of money and efforts. Kazim must be grinding his teeth.

By: Gilles Domartini

Gilles Domartini — Wed, 09 May 2012 09:17:05 +0000

Too bad for the Ongo team, that was an interesting model. Certainly, as rightly pointed by Laura in the article, the challenge is to have a “bundled” offer next to dedicated paywalls per newspaper. The strategy then becomes confusing for users and technically difficult to sustain.

Also, press centric models are clearly a risky choice long term. All forms of media are mashing up, from articles, videos, live content, and interactive presentation or apps. Certainly, solutions able to cope with the evolution of user consumption are those who will best succeed.

It is not true that Press+ is now the only remaining offer available, there are several more and maybe US should look more at Europe’s solutions. See for example Cleeng, who has with 500+ active publishers, ranging from Blogs (VentureBeat), Financial Newspapers (LaTribune in France), or press consortiums like GoPress in Belgium. The closure of OnePass or Ongo might offer new opportunities.

By: Anti-Eric

Anti-Eric — Wed, 09 May 2012 01:33:09 +0000

Apps suck, Apple takes too big a cut, the content is isolated. Too expensive to produce. I’ve changed my mind already.

And herein lies the problem. Almost 20 years in and still no real revenue solution for content producers.

By: Eric

Eric — Tue, 08 May 2012 23:45:29 +0000

www is a free culture. Apps are not a free culture. Eeven though many thousands of apps are indeed free – the App culture does not *expect* everything to be free. This is the difference. Apps are the future rev source for all news/media publishers. Consolidation will continue, websites will close down (not paywall) and only global mastheads, national mastheads and niche content brands will survive.