The chief executive of Johnston Press has appeared to rule out any further moves towards imposing paywalls on the company’s newspaper websites.
Temporary paywalls were introduced at six of the publisher’s local newspaper sites last November, but the experiment proved a flop and was later quietly dropped.
In an interview with the Daily Mail published yesterday, JP chief executive John Fry admitted it was hard to change the habit of getting online content for free.
Instead he suggested that iPhone Apps would be a potentially more lucrative source of revenue for the regional press in future.
Mr Fry told the Mail that he saw “no case” for erecting paywalls around JP’s online operations as Rupert Murdoch has done with the Times and Sunday Times.
“With the internet it’s free and has been from the beginning. After 15 years of free it’s hard to change people’s habits,” he said.
However he suggested that software packages delivering news to mobile phones, such as The Scotsman’s recently launched iPhone applications, were the way forward.
“People seem to be willing to pay for apps, even if it’s small amounts of money,” he added.
In the interview, Mr Fry also admitted that the company had faced difficulties in servicing its £480m debt, with a restructuring deal agreed with the banks last summer doubling its debt repayments for the first six months of the year to more than £20m.
Mr Fry commented wrily: “That perhaps explains why the banks are so profitable.”
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Why do some people think that apps are only available via i-Phones? Talk about limiting your market! Also most people I know would rather get an RSS feed from a newspaper site than pay for an app.
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If you diminish your ‘product’ through slashing staff and resources you can’t treat the readers by fools by: a) Hoping they don’t notice (and continue to splash out on newspapers) and b) Introducing charges. I’m sorry, but it really is not rocket science.
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I think John Fry is right, as long as the app is not exclusive to Apple. It’s just a shame it took so long to realise it.
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Excellent news! Now all Mr Fry needs to do is admit Atex was a waste of time and money, put it back in the box and bring back the talented subs who worked like stink to ensure a degree of quality.
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Restricting it just to an iPhone app is definitely the wrong way to go about it as you’ll find that your customer base is limited (when compared with something more open). I agree with Yawn: an ideal solution would be to use an RSS feed but coupled to a micropayment system. Each RSS “article” would be priced and would be transparently added to your mobile device bill when you click through and reads the full article.
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There’s simply no way ON EARTH that I would pay for an app courtesy of JP’s Peterborough “Evening” Telegraph, which is now actually a morning paper. Far too much inane drivel / rehashed council and police press releases. The current website is a load of sh*te and things like the “live” football updates rarely, if ever, work. I have zero confidence an app would be of any use / interest.
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For free? Shouldn’t it be just “free”. Or “for nothing.” Is there an app for proper English? No wonder so many journos can’t rite no proper English no more innit?
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Webbedfeet is a bit pendantic but right. I spent some time as a humble workie on a weekly staffed by a lot of people not much older than me and was amazed at the poor punctuation, spelling, and writing of people who had been at the job for a couple of years. When I asked if anyone checked their copy they said “not much”. An eye-opener if you are fresh out of uni and keen to learn. I went into PR.
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Johnston Pressure at least lives in the real world. Would whoever plagued JP with Atex kindly clear their desk and divide their fat salary between the poor devils who actually have to use it day in day out. Apps, indeed!
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Banks are so profitable because companies like Johnston Press were stupid enough to go looking for huge debt, thinking the sun would shine forever. Mind you many JP journalists are saddled with debt, but because fo low pay, and no hope of a half million quid bonus like Mr Fry’s…
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