Fairfax to begin SMH and The Age paywalls next week

Today’s cover of the SMH print issue is a disgrace and testament to the increasing irrelevance of print newspapers.
The story dominating the cover is about Julia Gillard’s ministers Carr and Butler calling her on the leadership. Overnight, Carr robustly denies this says he is loyal to Julia and she will lead the party to the election. He also says he was never contacted for the story. Butler also denies it.
So either it is an example of poor or lazy journalism, poor judgement about a front cover or part of a Fairfax destabilisation campaign against the incumbent leadership.
if that was an online story it would have been updated in the small hours – or run the risk of rampant online commentary.

Speaking as a long-time loyal reader, who could care less what they do? Its finished as a credible brand and once Guardian is up I will studiously avoid like I do for the Oz.

The once-proud broadsheet tradition is now non-stop link-bait, celebrity puff, and the endless repetition of Narrative and leadership speculation. Even opinion commentary has been degraded to farce by talentless hacks like the IPA published 4 days out of 5 like we constantly need their manufactured cultural wars and rent seeking. As someone in their core demographic educated professional, I find the current state of their titles to be an insult. I wish them well with their new down-scale market – but I doubt they’re earn eyeballs competing with the tabloids as Murdoch-lite.

Fairfax Media and NewsCorp are just plain sad.

Paywalls?

Their lack of innovation is what has caused their massive destruction of value.

Old men with no ideas.

Clearly they are intent on seeing that approach right through to the bitter end.

So will the paywall be the same kind as the NYTimes one, where you remove everything after .html?

Because that’s awesome.

2 or 3 years ago I would have paid no dramas but now I’m not sure it’s worth it. The quality of the SMH has noticeably been on the decline. Maybe the pay wall will help them improve it back to where it was.

Google news here I come, we’ve been enjoy free online news for over 10 years and you expect ppl to pay up now….?

Final nails in the Fairfax coffin…

There are loads of ways to read the news for free online.

Social networks: I follow the Police, I follow brands (who send PR to Fairfax and NEWS Ltd) and of course celebrities – all for free and without a ‘slant’ on whatever the message is.

Then there is the ABC / SBS and further a field the BBC and other international sites a plenty.

When the Guardian launches their Australian version online; here is yet another reason to frequent a news offering other than Fairfax or News Ltd owned. I will never sign up to a paywall for news. i am a gen Xer, therefore what is the future for news sources?

We need more media owners in Oz and the fact that print news is dying will hopefully result in the variation of media online and less influence bu the unethical (we all know who they are…)

Will @ 2, you summed the SMH/Age up perfectly:

“The once-proud broadsheet tradition is now non-stop link-bait, celebrity puff, and the endless repetition of Narrative and leadership speculation…”

I can’t even be bothered skimming the online edition anymore. I been asking friends for months now if they will pay when the wall goes up and I am yet to get a single yes.

Nah, I wouldn’t pay to read the likes of Hartcher. You’ve gotta be kidding.

A step in the right direction. I won’t be paying for it immediately, but I will once the loopholes are closed.

Re: much of the squabbling in this thread… this issue is bigger than just the quality of Fairfax/NewsLtd. This is about moving toward a climate where ALL publishers (blogs and news orgs alike) can stand on their fleet without bleeding money.

Publishers like The Guardian also benefit from moves to monetise journalism. You may want to migrate over there once they start up in Aus… but don’t be naive enough to assume they’re raking in $$$.

I would pay for Mike Carlton, but that’s about it.

Is it time for Melbourne bloggers to unite for HuffPo style site?

With so much news available for so many sources, will be interesting to see what happens

What is happening with Australian digital and subscriber numbers?

I agree, quality has gone. GONE.

I tried signing up to the free Australian newspaper. What a joke. So many steps for free news. I love reading the smh every morning on my iPad, but if I have to pay for it, forget it. There is so much free up to date news available without the annoying ads.

I’ve just started commuting again and I was reading the smh today on the bus and I f…ing loved it. Agree that there wasn’t quite enough substance to the Carr vs Gillard claims, but beyond that there was a stack to read, from local ICAC stuff to weird new Chinese laws enabling parents to sue kids if they don’t visit enough – I like the new format though would be happy to have sport as a separate insert.

Granny’s death rattle

As lousy as you might feel that the SMH might have become, there’s something much worse lurking close by.

Unless we cherish and welcome and improve the stuff that Fairfax does, Sydney will becomes a ONE-NEWSPAPER CITY, and, my dear friends, when that one newspaper is owned by the Citizen-Kane-shaming Rupert Murdoch, that indeed would be a fate much much much worse than putting up with the daffy content of our beloved SMH.

BEWARE the MURDOCH EVIL EMPIRE

I’m becoming more and more convinced that Fairfax should be wound up and the value returned to shareholders. A company on the slide in a dramatic way.

paul – you are so right! How informed would we all feel if The Daily Telegraph was Sydney’s only newspaper? Not very. I think these claims that the SMH has deteriorated are completely overblown. I love the paper. Best news source by far. And the only one that is exposing possible corruption in NSW public life. I much prefer the compact version and it seems like it contains far more stories than the broadsheet. I am happy to pay for it – in fact I recently subscribed and now get it home delivered 7 days. I think the management are finally making some good decisions and I’m fairly sure the switch to compact will see a jump in sales.

i have literally not visited heraldsun.com.au since they introduced their paywall. theage.com.au will be a more difficult habit to break, but i’m not paying for it. i’ll find my news elsewhere

For all the talk of News and FXJ being dinosaurs, I don’t think I’ve heard many credible alternatives to paywalls from these experts in innovation who continually criticise.

Seems that anytime a company wants people to pay for something they are considered old hat and out of touch. Not everything can be free.

Dead in the water.

RE: @Fabfour

http://bit.ly/Ynp57L –> Please see link as to why paper still has a great future.

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Twitter | @BeauCrellin

I didn’t watch the video, Beau, but from the headline, I felt the same way once. I have 6000 books in my house but since getting a Kindle (I’m now on my third), I haven’t bought more than 5 or 6 paper books. I used the same arguments once – love the feel, the smell etc., but once converted you never go back to paper. Between my Kindle and my Samsung 10.1 tablet, paper is “so last century”.

OK … just watched as I got some time, Beau – yes, that kind of paper has a future unless a new and better self-drying bidet is invented (perhaps it already has been).

I’m actually looking forward to reading the Australian edition of the Guardian. I hate to say it, but the declining quality of the Fairfax papers and now the introduction of metered paywalls has turned me away from them.

Bring on GuardianAU – Fairfax’s online click-bait tactics smell of the soft porn industry.

Also, autostart videos…

Pay wall for SMH.? who would pay to read tired old conservative hacks like Paul Sheehan.