Monday 2 March 2009

US newspaper group prepares to charge for some online content

Hearst Corp. plans to hold back at least some content from its newspapers’ free web sites and appears to be on the verge of implementing a pay web approach, according to a memo from a top Hearst executive, Editor & Publisher reports today.
The memo to staffers is from Steven Swartz, president of Hearst Newspapers, which includes 16 dailies, among them the San Francisco Chronicle and Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Both titles have recently indicated they might close if severe cutbacks are not made soon.
“Exactly how much paid content to hold back from our free sites will be a judgment call made daily by our management, whose mission should be to run the best free Web sites in our markets without compromising our ability to get a fair price from consumers for the expensive, unique reporting and writing that we produce each day,” Swartz said in the memo quoted by E&P.

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