Digital publishers should focus on building readership and more effective business models, not charging for ubiquitous content.
The publishing industry is trying to put the genie back in the bottle. Although nearly every attempt to get users to pay for content online has failed, publishers are still in the fruitless pursuit of subscription-based business models. News Corp. recently announced it was pursuing a company-wide paid content program. You might expect a venerable conservative icon like Rupert Murdoch to cling to an outdated business model, but the approach has a romantic appeal to more progressive leaders, too, including our own Editor-in-Chief Lance Ulanoff. The thing is: It isn't going to work. It's time for old media to burn the ships and build businesses for the new world of digital media.
