News Ltd unveils Penbo’s Punch
News Ltd’s new online comment site The Punch launched last night, and editor David Penberthy revealed that part of the site could become a subscription model.
The Punch, which features the stripped down look of a blog, features a mixture of political and general commentary from a roster of staff and guest columnists.
And in a guest posting for Mumbrella, Penberthy revealed: “It is a free site but down the track may examine a subscription model – not to bar readers from continuing to access it unless they pay, but to offer additional premium content for a reasonable fee.”
And in a posting on The Punch itself, he added: “If we ever did decide to charge a subscription, the fee would be reasonable, and would involve offering additional premium content, rather than blocking readers from accessing the existing site.”
I was disappointed to hear that some of the writer’s felt they were ‘building someone else’s empire” as they did not feel completely satisfied with what The Punch was going to achieve for them.
Nice bit of launch PR work Penbo – declare that you are going to a subsciption based model, everyone jumps in for a free look, and hey presto! – instance audience.
Worked on me – but you wont see a red cent from me for syndicated, un-original content.
If you could throw in nude dwarves on water-skiis – well then you have yourselves a winner.
The Punch is already revealing its ugly News Ltd origins by breaching the copyright of a citizen journalist.