To Mr Rupert Murdoch,
As you know; news is vital in everyday life; to know what’s going on in today’s society - whether it is local or global news. I believe that news should always be free and accessible to anyone as it is crucial for us audiences to be aware of events to make us more informed individuals.
As you said; “The world is changing and newspapers have to adapt”. We have become a more fast paced society, reading news on the go through our mobiles and tablet computers. If you began to charge for news, you would be restricting us audiences from learning and understanding the world. Although many people now access the news via the internet, some people still prefer to get their news from newspapers – therefore newspapers will still need to exist and you will still gain some revenue from the traditional way. Furthermore, you own vast media empire – including publications from Australia to the UK – and are therefore still a strong and profitable company. News Corp earned US$ 33.706 billion in 2012 – why are you so concerned about earning any more money when your revenue is so high anyway?
In addition to this; newspapers should be more innovative and develop niche expertise that is worth paying for – they shouldn’t just be owned by a single corporation as this hinders news from being diverse and interesting, and aimed at different audiences rather than mainstream news. Also, news business owners need to grasp the fact that the monopoly of news is now over due to the internet – there are too many people that will begin their own news pages to provide for people who do not want to pay.
Even if you did decide to charge for news, people will always find a way to gain access for free – whether it be through social networking or just other free news website – so your attempts would be pointless.
Yours Sincerely,
Sarah Leigh
Dear Mrs Leigh
ReplyDeleteI understand your views on why I want to charge for the news. What you need to understand is that we are living in a growing digital world which everyone needs to adapt too. As I have said in the past it is essential for the future of independent digital journalism that a fair price can be charged for news to people who value it. Like you said, even if I did decide to charge for news , people would still find a way to gain access for free, but for the people that prioritise the news and know its worth will pay a small fee for it. One of the main reasons I am charging for the news is to have more plurality, having news given out for free is becoming a threat to this. Lastly Miss Leigh people getting news from other sources such as social networking sites, means the news is not reliable leading to false stories, wouldn't you rather straight forward news that tells you the truth about what is going around in the world?
Thank you for your concern
Yours Sincerely
Ruby Smith