Herald Sun footy will lose readers from pay wall
Roar Rookie In recent months, many of the articles posted on the popular Herald Sun Footy Website have gone behind a pay-wall. While readers have been offered a free two-month trial, they will have to start paying if they wish to view footy articles written by the influential Herald Sun writers.
This is a relatively new phenomenon in the electronic age, whereby media owners are seeking to maximise their product for a profit.
The news, in this case sports news, is seen as a product delivered by journalists to us, the consumers.
This is the beginning of the end for the Herald Sun, for a few compelling reasons.
While at present the average punter enjoys the diverse and informative journalism provided by the footy writers from the Sun, it is quite a new concept from them to ask us to pay for it, particularly online.
For the price of a hard-copy most Melbournians will gladly pick up a paper for all it offers. But now they are being asked to cough up their hard-earned money for online versions.
While previously a link on Twitter, Facebook or email might prompt you to go and read the article, this changes when faced with a pay-wall.
I can see the interest waning rather quickly. I know for myself I have simply stopped looking.
As someone not based in Melbourne, I have enjoyed reading the comprehensive AFL coverage the Herald Sun provides. But not anymore.
Is there a new generation of footy followers coming through who will pay? I doubt it.
In fact I think the Y-generation is even less likely to pay for something online. The culture of the internet is that everything is free, unless it’s being delivered to your front door.
While there may be a short-term gain for the Herald Sun, I think the long-term effects on their influence are going to be profound.
We may see more and more people swap a hard copy of footy news for an electronic one on their laptop, tablet and phone.
- Explore:
- AFL, Herald Sun
May 25th 2012 @ 3:09am
Cameron said | May 25th 2012 @ 3:09am | Report comment
“We may see more and more people swap a hard copy of footy news for an electronic one on their laptop, tablet and phone.”
And as people do this, that creates a market, and a market means the potential of money to be made. So, I think more and more media outlets are going to follow down the pay wall route, as they learn banner ads just arn’t cutting it in terms of raising revenue. Many companies have abandoned their social networking advertising strategies as they found this method has underperformed. So, it is unsustainable for newspapers to continue to provide free articles on the back of funding from banner ads, they are going to find pay wall too tempting to resist,
May 25th 2012 @ 12:06pm
Lazy Ted Failyou said | May 25th 2012 @ 12:06pm | Report comment
Good riddance, they cannot even put in the page 3 girl or agony aunt section like their British brethren, so if they die off would it improve Australia’s well being or reduce it?
Media Watch would only have ACA and TT to talk about then. It would improve the democratic debate and intelligence levels of Australians if News Ltd’s tripe would be banished. It is like a Liberal-National party newsletter with the hook being ‘women’s gossip’, ‘tripe’ and ‘men’s sporting interests’.
May 25th 2012 @ 6:25am
stam said | May 25th 2012 @ 6:25am | Report comment
Well I used to frequent the herald sun website but haven’t been on there for a while now, nor will I be in the future. There’s just too many options for me to choose from, why would I pay for something I can get free elsewhere?
Although I do play supercoach, is that behind the pay wall as well?
May 25th 2012 @ 10:26am
ManInBlack said | May 25th 2012 @ 10:26am | Report comment
It annoys me that I can buy the hard copy paper and it wouldn’t provide me a single use access key to enter the paywall for that day.
However, I signed up early for the 2 month free trial – and do you know what – it’s just too much bother to have to log in. So, I go to the Daily Telegraph and access superfooty from there.
May 25th 2012 @ 7:19am
Paul said | May 25th 2012 @ 7:19am | Report comment
Living in America, I don’t have the option of simply buying a physical copy of the Herald-Sun. Yet, I did notice several (American as well as Aussie) advertisers on their web pages. Since the Herald Sun introduced he pay wall, I have removed it’s footy coverage from my RSS reader in favor of other (free) resources.
May 25th 2012 @ 7:32am
Whites said | May 25th 2012 @ 7:32am | Report comment
Isn’t it so horrible. Old media titles can’t survive with just banner adds. They’re losing to many physical readers and banner adds just don’t make up the difference.
May 25th 2012 @ 9:06am
Christo the Daddyo said | May 25th 2012 @ 9:06am | Report comment
News Ltd has the most ineffective paywall in the world – all you do is click on the link to the story, copy that url into Google and click on the search result. Paywall bypassed.
But don’t tell Rupert, OK?
May 25th 2012 @ 9:20am
Ian Whitchurch said | May 25th 2012 @ 9:20am | Report comment
Rupert’s not good with tech. No-one told him that with robots.txt, you can stop Google News indexing your pages.
May 25th 2012 @ 9:19am
Ian Whitchurch said | May 25th 2012 @ 9:19am | Report comment
This isnt about the Herald-Sun, its about the Sun.
This is the practice run for News Corp, to see if it works for the Premier League fans in the UK.
My gut feeling is it wont, because the quality of the HS’ journalism just isnt that good – and I understand why, because if you are going for a mass market, then you can get very deep into any given topic.
There is also the issue of competition from free journalism, via blogs and so on, and while you will get a fair amount of half-informed, one-eyed ranting, Caroline Wilson shows that thats an issue for the mainstream media as well.
Finally, theres a dog that, in it’s own yard, is bigger than News Corp. If News Corp insists on you paying for news about the AFL, the AFL will ensure you can get it for free by delivering it itself.
May 25th 2012 @ 9:32am
UK Steve said | May 25th 2012 @ 9:32am | Report comment
I’m not sure that News Corp are looking at this as a practice run for The Sun. I can’t imagine this working for The Sun. When I think of their readership, I think of working class people after an easy read. They don’t strike me as the sort that would log onto a computer and read a newspaper. News Corp also own The Times, are they have gone behind a pay-wall, unfortunately.
May 25th 2012 @ 9:56am
Ian Whitchurch said | May 25th 2012 @ 9:56am | Report comment
UK Steve,
Its all about monetising fantasy football.
http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/the-suns-dream-team-fantasy-football-game-hits-1m-players-145120045.html
May 25th 2012 @ 10:16am
Whites said | May 25th 2012 @ 10:16am | Report comment
Well the Wall Street Journal always maintained a pay wall for most of it’s content. After acquiring the WSJ News Corp decided to spread the concept to It’s other papers around the world.
Originally the New York Times maintained a free online presence but it to has now gone behind a pay wall. Fairfax will probably go behind a pay wall in the next few years. Only The Guardian in the UK seems to be persisting with an entirely free online presence.
It would be good if News Corp had some kind of global superpass so your could access The Australian, WSJ, The Times and other papers off the one subscription.
May 25th 2012 @ 10:23am
Ian Whitchurch said | May 25th 2012 @ 10:23am | Report comment
Whites,
People dont pay for the WSJ. Corporate expense accounts pay for the WSJ.
May 25th 2012 @ 9:25am
The Cattery said | May 25th 2012 @ 9:25am | Report comment
I’ve given it a two month trial – and to be honest, I haven’t been overly impressed with the offering so far.
It would have to be considerably better than the free offerings to encourage people to pay for it.
A carrot is the linking of the HS subscription to the high end supercoach add-ons, which cost as well, and that ain’t a bad strategy.
May 25th 2012 @ 10:16am
Whites said | May 25th 2012 @ 10:16am | Report comment
The Roar will go behind a pay wall within months.
May 25th 2012 @ 12:18pm
The Cattery said | May 25th 2012 @ 12:18pm | Report comment
Is that fair dinkum or are you stirring us up (personally, I would put the annual value of a Roar subscription at around whatever the HS subscription is).
May 25th 2012 @ 10:36am
Redb said | May 25th 2012 @ 10:36am | Report comment
Alas this is the destiny of most news/sports websites if they want to survive. They will lose until the Age makes a similiar decision.
May 25th 2012 @ 12:32pm
the flattery said | May 25th 2012 @ 12:32pm | Report comment
and the age/smh will get more readers and thus more advertising. murdoch is having a laugh.
May 25th 2012 @ 10:51am
Cameron Larkin said | May 25th 2012 @ 10:51am | Report comment
I’m more interested in reading articles on sites like this, TheRoar. The papers (and their online versions) are simply media releases with a few more words put around what the teams spit out.
Enjoy reading opinions from my fellow Roarers rathen than Robbo and the team telling me something I haven’t heard about elsewhere.
Keep up the good work guys and girls.
Cam.
May 25th 2012 @ 12:42pm
the flattery said | May 25th 2012 @ 12:42pm | Report comment
easy on the brown-nosing cam.
May 25th 2012 @ 12:44pm
AGO74 said | May 25th 2012 @ 12:44pm | Report comment
Agree Cameron. There is so much lazy journalism today. Bog it up with a few quotes and a cursory (and condensed) opinion.