Comments on: New York Times backs AP in lawsuit against news collector Meltwater

By: Jeff John Roberts

Jeff John Roberts — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 13:24:49 +0000

Mark, I can add France to the mix — Le Monde and Le Figaro are not exactly innovative on the digital front. The UK, Ireland and parts of eastern Europe appear further along.

godzilla, yes, the issue is monetization. You’re right that it’s a logical business decision to protect print earnings — but, as you point out, this is a delay tactic not a strategy.

By: mark

mark — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 10:27:27 +0000

I think it’s only fair to say that if you can back it up. Belgium ? Norway ? Hardly European powerhouses. I also do not understand how demanding that search engines pay for piggybacking off content that’s not theirs is somehow contrary to having a digitizing strategy unless what you mean by “digitizing” is giving away your content for free ? Given the brand you work for I assume not ?

By: godzilla

godzilla — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 08:30:20 +0000

It doesn’t appear as if the difficulty lies in digitizing traditional newspaper content. The difficulty is more likely in monetizing such digitization efforts and it doesn’t sound as if North American newspapers businesses have found a way to effectively monetize their efforts digitally either. So perhaps not digitizing is a business decision to protect their businesses, albeit a non-proactive delay tactic?

By: Jeff John Roberts

Jeff John Roberts — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 16:31:25 +0000

Thanks for your comment, Mark. My remark is subjective but is based on my experiences in Europe where print appears to still be widely prevalent. It’s also based on conversations with journalists in Belgium, Norway and other countries who regularly tell me their publications don’t even have a digital strategy at all. I can also point to EU countries’ repeated efforts to wring copyright royalties from Google to prop up their newspapers.

Europe has many wonderful news brands. But I think it’s fair to say its digitize efforts are lagging North America.

By: mark

mark — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 13:37:54 +0000

What is your basis for claiming that “Europe’s attempts to digitize the news business….. are already trailing North America by a wide margin.” ?

By: bob

bob — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 12:09:57 +0000

Masnick is a big freeloader himself. While his blog has more original content than others, he’s never, ever supported the hard working artists. He’s just a flack for the billionaires who don’t want to share anything with the people who do the work. That’s why Google was so happy to support his bogus future of journalism conference. Needless to say, it was just a bunch of Google share holders hoping that they could keep the freeloading going as long as possible.