A Response to Rupert Murdoch

While I don't always agree with 20th Century Fox's methods of marketing its films or how the film portion of its corporation operates in general, I must say that for once I find myself in agreement with media mogul, Rupert Murdoch's, prediction that newspapers will have to evolve and adapt to new technology if they want to survive. Essentially, he believes that an online subscription fee is the right plan of action for newspapers to adopt rather than allowing the government to step in and help the industry. You can read the full article here.

Though this idea has some merit, however, I believe the only way this practice will work is if all the other major news organizations adopt this same business practice within the same period of time. Otherwise, Fox News will suffer by being the first organization to implement this business model because people will simply turn to the other popular new organizations and continue to get the news for free. In turn, the other news organizations will also continue to suffer due to people receiving free news from them.

So, Murdoch can spend all the money he wants advertising how great Fox News is, but until other news organizations follow this practice I don't see this being profitable for the corporation.

Eventually, I believe all the major news organizations will adopt this business practice and people WILL pay for it. In the same way people pay for audio quality songs on iTunes, I believe people will pay for quality and credible news stories. But this largely depends on news organizations finding innovative ways to appeal to their readers in order to keep them coming back for more. If a news organization cannot find ways to attract readers then it deserves to go out of business. It's just that simple.

I also agree with Murdoch's belief that the government should not take over or "bailout" the newspapers. If an organization or company needs help that badly, then it's obvious that either people no longer want it around or it made some terrible mistakes and it deserves to go away. Certain banks and certain car companies SHOULD NOT be operating right now. But we all know how that turned out.

So while I agree with most of what Rupert Murdoch is saying, I'm still not a huge fan of his news corporation. A word of advice Mr. Murdoch: I would not mention that newspapers should "stand up to the rich and powerful" if I was in your shoes. Last time I checked you weren't exactly living on food stamps.