/agree, but I doubt it's going to last forever. In my industry, my subscribers advertise their products online with us, as well as in the (much more expensive)print media. In the 6 years I've been with the company there has been a fundamental shift to online, for both readership numbers, and financial reasons. Now we are not a news site, but this shift does tell me that more people are getting their info online, and less people are reading newspapers/magazines.
With traditional newspapers, they get revenue from charging for the newspaper itself, as well as the advertising in the papers. It's been a win/win for them. If they want to continue making money, they need to generate the same revenue from their online news site. Already they are not getting R5-00/copy, so they have to get it from advertising. In fact, they have to charge more for advertising to make up for no subscription. It's obviously not working, or these guys would not be considering a subscription model.
Have you had a look at the papers these days? Very thin, especially the papers that bulked up with Property/Motoring advertising on certain days of the week. Go online and check out these industry sites, bigger than ever. And every month they get bigger exposure, as more and more of the local population go online.
I don't really know how news companies are going to survive without a subscription if they can't make their online advertising model work.
