Papers getting more protective

Mon 9 November 2009 16:01, Bas van den Beld

How to monetize news. If you have the answer, that could mean you'll be very rich very soon. Newspapers are still looking for the answer. They are now looking at closing their gates to get money on news they until now provode for free.

Two different newspapers, two big ones, are taking powerful steps towards paid content these days. The one, The News Corporation from Rupert Murdoch, decided to keep Google out, the other, German Bild.de blocks iPhone users to get them to use the paid iPhone app.

Bild.de decided just before the weekend to block anyone using an iPhone browser from accessing the website. They can use the website through the paid iPhone app which Bild offers. Not only that, users also have to pay for specific articles.

The owners of Bild, Axel Springer, is planning on implementing the same feature not just for Bild.de but also for Die Welt. And it doesn't stop at the iPhone. For now you can reach the content through a Nokia, Android or other handheld, in the future they will also be blocking all the other smartphones.

Axel Springer belongs to the group of publishers who believe they should protect their content. Though this point of view is not shared by every publisher a couple of big ones agree. One of them off course being Rupert Murdoch.

He announced he will be closing his sites, for Google. Using the well known robots.txt he intends to make the content invisible for Google. Readers "who randomly reach a page via search" aren't of much value for advertisers anyway he says.

It's another step by Murdoch towards his paid content model. We off course are very interested in what this will do for traffic on his sites...

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