Will YOU Pay for Online News?

The world of free media has taken another blow as Google says it will let publishers set a limit on the number of articles people can read for free through its search engine.  The decision comes as media moguls like Rupert Murdoch bash Google for profiting from online news pages without giving royalties to the sources themselves.  Google indexes the information in places like California and serves online news at no cost to people searching for stories, photos or other material online.

Previously, each “click” from a user would be treated as free.  Under the new system, publishers have the option of implementing programs that can limit the number of clicks allowed by users.

Publishers for instance, can join a “First Click Free” program that lets Google index website content but prevents Web surfers from having unrestricted access once they reach the online locales.

For many news sources, an Internet user’s first click will lead to the desired page, but attempts to go deeper into the website will be routed back to registration pages, in which most media sources are likely to charge for content.  Google has already updated the program so that publishers can limit users to no more than five pages per day without registering or subscribing.  The change means Google users may start seeing registration pages pop up when they click for a sixth time on any given day at websites of publishers using First Click Free.

So is this just pure greed on the part of big business? That’s what we thought at first too, but further investigation brings to light some interesting conclusions.

Proponents of the new program point out that paying for news is in the public interest.  A program like this could generate enough revenue to save the world of investigative journalism from bankruptcy as newspapers across the world fold under financial pressure.  If micropayment programs are implemented and users are charged just a few cents per page, that would be an incredible boost to the industry without restricting most internet users.  More money could be used on uncovering hard news.  Today’s parade of low-quality infotainment talk shows could be replaced by primary research and first-person interviews.  News in general will be better, which will benefit everyone from the financial consultants to the high school students.

As these advocates rightly point out, journalism is like any other business; you get what you pay for.