News Corp continues to reshape media landscape

It has been an interesting couple of weeks for UK media watchers. News Corp have been busy hogging the headlines after announcing it plans to make wholesale changes to it's business model, which could yet reshape the media landscape.

Firstly, Rupert Murdoch revealed that the Times, Sun and News of the World websites would start charging for content. Charging has been mooted for some time and although unpopular, most people I speak to are prepared to pay a nominal fee for access to quality news, in the same way we buy a newspaper. I favour an annual subscription that many of us already buy for things like football club websites.

Murdoch said: "Quality journalism is not cheap. The digital revolution has opened many new and inexpensive distribution channels but it has not made content free. We intend to charge for all our news websites."

Ultimately, if we want a good quality product, we should be prepared to pay for it. Newspapers and TV have been badly affected by diminishing advertising revenue and they need a new model – this is it and I expect others to follow suit.

Secondly, News Corp announced that they will scrap thelondonpaper. This seems a purely economic move. The corporation have spoken about rearranging their "priorities" and anything that has posted losses of £10 million two years running, can hardly justify it's existence, given the current climate. From a PR perspective – it is always sad to see a newspaper go to the wall as it is one less outlet to gain coverage, but the free newspaper market relies solely on advertising spend – the sums just don’t add up.

Thirdly, and one piece of news that will affect the PR industry greatly, is that the Wall Street Journal is to ignore press embargoes. This is both bold and dangerous in equal measures and whilst I appreciate the need for breaking news in the digital age - surely this approach will lead to the WSJ receiving press releases at the very last minute?

It has caused quite a stir, but I cannot see other media outlets following this particular stance. It is not a case of biting the hand that feeds it, but I feel journalists are underplaying the important role PROs play in their profession.