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Newspapers Have Always Hated the Web, Which Is Spelling Their Doom
Newspapers have been anti-Internet since the beginning.
When the Internet was young — at least in terms of being something “anyone” could use — I thought the idea of free websites would give way to walled-off websites that required one-time fees or subscriptions. The idea that big companies would just give away content didn’t seem to mesh with unbridled capitalism.
As it turns out, it was mainly just newspapers and other media companies that went in that direction, which is funny because the cost of newspapers was always small compared to advertising revenue, so you would think they’d have been in a prime position to pounce on the free web.
In the early days, newspapers buried their online content behind email walls. Their first attempts at monetizing the online version failed, so they viewed the web as a way to harvest email addresses while the print version made money.
This cynical view was the beginning of their anti-Web philosophy. It was also just plain bad business.
One basic philosophy to be successful: Choose the short-term loss and long-term gain solution over the short-term gain and long-term loss. Most people are short-sighted and go for the quick money, but companies like Netflix, Amazon, etc., are OK with short-term…