There has been lots of talk about how newspapers can survive… and if there’s any way they can get readers to pay for online content. For too long, they’ve given it away for free, but can they change the business model in order to make a buck?
Well, maybe there’s a solution: Journalism Online L.L.C. plans to supply publishers with ready-made tools to charge Internet fees. Richard Pérez Peña from the NYT reports the 3 media executives that founded the company are building an automated system to allow newspapers and magazines to charge for online access, including an “all you can read” subscription that would allow access to multiple publications.
Journalism Online could be ready to operate by the fall. The company says the advantages are that publishers would not have to develop their own systems and readers could access many different publications using only one system.
The founders and investors are Steven Brill, creator of Court TV; L. Gordon Crovitz, a former publisher of The Wall Street Journal; and Leo Hindery Jr., who has headed communications company Global Crossing, the YES Network, and now runs InterMedia Partners, a private equity firm that specializes in media.