Shuhaib ShariffThe Dark Knight… Yeah, Right!

In what could potentially be a game changer, media baron Rupert Murdoch has decided to charge a fee to online readers of his UK publications: The Times and its sister publication, The Sunday Times.

Content on the above portals will no longer be free.

Most analysts are baffled with this decision … online news publications have always offered online content for FREE and they’ve made their money from ADVERTISING. Charging a subscription fee for online news content is unheard off, and most media companies will not even attempt it for fear of loosing readership and thereby advertising. Off-course Murdock thinks differently.

In an interview recently he said “There isn’t enough advertising in this world to subsidize all web content. Few media companies are making profits from their presence online”
Very true, if you ask me.

Infact most media publications are struggling to make any money at all … some like The Tribune have gone bankrupt.
The problem is, with the emergence & domination of new media (led-by the big G) , Newspapers haven’t been able to figure out a viable business model. Giving premium content away for free and subsidizing it with online advertising doesn’t work; primarily because the revenues in the online advertising are a pittance and there’s just too much competition online for a relatively small subset of Advertisers.

Google’s monopoly in contextual content advertising is sickening. The last straw, I suppose is that Google’s only competitor “Yahoo Publisher Network” is slated to shutdown next month. Its game over for large publishers dependent solely on online advertising.

In this backdrop, I believe its good move by the old FOX to monetize content via a subscription model. If it works, rest assured that all big media publications will follow in Murdoch’s footsteps. Time will tell.

BTW … Put yourself in Murdoch’s shoes and you could well ask yourself, ‘What do I have to lose?’  The Times and Sunday Times just announced horrific 2009 results, losing some £80m between them… So for those particular properties it doesn’t take a genius to see the current business model is smashed.”

It is widely believed that the Indian MEDIA has scant respect for copyrights. Although it is unfair to generalize, I’ve starting to believe that it is indeed true.

We’re a niche online media portal covering events & stories in Bangalore city. Time and again I’ve noticed that mainstream media uses OUR content (photos, research data, etc.) in their stories and never gives us credit (forget about taking permission!)

Let me provide a recent instance:

Bangalore Mirror issue of February 24th 2010, Page 7, which bore the story ” Tweeting to Save Carlton Towers”.

Bangalore Mirror has used 3 of MyBangalore.com Copyright images in the above mentioned story .

Images in context
1.A shocked survivor
2.A Fireman in Action
3.A victim being brought out of the building.

These images have been very prominently featured in our story which have been captured by our Staff Photographer Manish Gunjan.

The story was published on February 23rd, 2010 Titled:
Pictures: Fire in Bangalore’s Carlton Towers
http://mybangalore.com/article/0210/pictures-fire-in-carlton-towers.html

As anybody can tell, this is a case of blatant rip-off and copyright violation. Can you believe that the honorable Bangalore Mirror belongs to the Times of India Group?

It is extremely unfair to pass off somebody’s work as your own. I have no idea, how many images/stories are being used on a daily basis – they could be anyone’s, but I do know that this nefarious practice is increasing and there is nothing we can do about it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nq31OjsQ124

The classic ‘Mile sur mera tumhara’ was conceptualized and conceived by late Suresh Mallick and it was first aired on Doordarshan on Aug 15, 1988 . Mind-blowing anthem!

After 22 years Arti and Kailash Surendranath have recreated and presented it as “Phir” Mile Sur Mera Tumhara … to say that they’ve R@PED the anthem is an understatement!!!

It looks like a trailer of a B-Grade Bollywod flick … starring Abhishek Bachchan, Shahid Kapoor and the like. Where is Sachin, Abdul Kalam, Sunil Mittal, Narayan Murthy, Sania Mirza, Vishwanath Anand, Leander Paes, etc?

Zoom / Times of India have produced this piece of crap.
The lyrics should have been:
“Phir” Na Mile Sur Mera Tumhara
To “Ku-sur” bane Humara

The Print Media business is in big trouble at the moment. Several media houses have altogether shut down and some have filed for bankruptcy (Tribune).

Why is this happening?
The simple economics is that revenues have sunk below publishing costs (i.e. paper + print + distribute). Also, there is some tough competition from Television & New Media. For advertisers, newspapers are no longer the only game in town.
Newspapers need to reinvent… not incrementally but exponentially. Else, they might go the dinosaur way!

Google Vs Yahoo!
Google tried selling contextual print ads in newspapers… but the strategy failed:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/20/google-bails-on-print-ads-and-newspapers/

Surprisingly, Yahoo seems to be enjoying some degree of success here. Yahoo’s Newspaper Consortium Keeps Growing:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/09/yahoos-newspaper-consortium-keeps-growing/

Interesting strategy.

As you drive through Bangalore’s upmarket Residency Road, you will notice a prominent hoarding that screams “DNA is now in my Bangalore”

Noticed this y’day and I suspect there must be 100+ hoardings in the city announcing DNA’s arrival. DNA (Daily News & Analysis) is a popular newspaper / print publication that has a sizeable marketshare in Mumbai and from the looks of it they are poised to do well in Bangalore. Their content is above average & the presentation is hip.

DNA will be competing for mindshare in a market dominated by BCCL’s Times of India. Other players include Deccan Chronicle, Hindu, New Indian Express & Deccan Herald.

I had a good chuckle about the “My Bangalore” bit… WHY? Well, I will reveal that in due course of time.