Rupert Murdoch hat in einem Interview mit “Time” erstmals laut über seine Pläne mit dem “Wall Street Journal” nachgedacht, wenn er den Mutterkonzern Dow Jones wie gewünscht übernehmen kann. Besonders interessant sind seine Überlegungen zur Zukunft der Zeitungen und der Frage, wie sich mit Qualitätsinhalten im Netz Geld verdienen lässt.
Aussage Nr.1: Die Hälfte der Männer unter 30 liest keine Zeitung und es gibt keine Anzeicehen, dass sie Zeitung lesen, wenn sie älter werden.
Im Original:When Murdoch talks about the future of newspapers, you get a sense of how contemporary he really is. Circulation and advertising revenues are ebbing away everywhere, he notes, proportional to broadband penetration. “You’ve really got to worry,” he says. “Tribune Co.’s revenues [in May] dropped 11% across broadcasting and newspapers. That’s huge. The Times dropped 8.5%. Half of men under 30 aren’t reading print newspapers, and there’s no sign that they come back as they age.”.
Aussage Nr. 2: Was wäre, wenn man 200 Top-Wirtschaftsjournalisten zusammenbringt, damit ein großartiges Produkt macht – nur im Internet, kostenlos für die Nutzer. Wie lange würde es dauern, bis die Werbung käme?
Im Original: How does he respond to this bleak picture? By musing about investing even more in newspapers. “What if, at the Journal, we spent $100 million a year hiring all the best business journalists in the world? Say 200 of them. And spent some money on establishing the brand but went global – a great, great newspaper with big, iconic names, outstanding writers, reporters, experts. And then you make it free, online only. No printing plants, no paper, no trucks. How long would it take for the advertising to come? It would be successful, it would work and you’d make … a little bit of money. Then again, the Journal and the Times make very little money now.”
Aussage Nr. 3: Das WSJ hat im Internet 900000 Abonnenten, aber ist nicht sehr profitabel. Für Murdoch ist ein Hybridmodell sinnvoller: Freie Inhalte sollen Werbeerlöse bringen, während Premiumkunden nur für sehr hochwertige Inhalte zahlen.
Im Original: In other words, he hasn’t decided what to do with the Journal, beyond investing in a beefed-up Washington bureau and more foreign bureaus, the better to challenge the Times and the Washington Post. He notes that the Journal leadership has tried to maintain the print circulation by not giving everything away online, but the percentage of heavily discounted print subscriptions is rising rapidly, a sign of ill health. WSJ.com has more than 900,000 subscribers, making it the largest paid-subscription site on the Web, but less profitable, Murdoch suspects, than it might be with a hybrid model – with free users driving ad sales and premium users willing to pay for high-end content. “But it needs to be studied carefully,” he says.
