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Is the impending Fairfax paywall yet another bad omen for quality journalism? Has the leap to a digital media model been too little too late? The dragging of the digital chain within our mainstream media might, at the very least, sound a salutary warning for other businesses still prevaricating about the move into the digital age.
Back in March I wrote about the arrival of the new compact versions of the hard copy Fairfax Australian mastheads, the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Canberra Times.
At about the same time, former senior Fairfax (AFR) editor Colleen Ryan was putting the final touches to her new book ‘Fairfax: the rise and fall’.
The book was launched recently by Opposition Shadow Minister for Telecommunications, The Hon. Malcolm Turnbull MP (who incidentally opened the first BlueChip Communication office back in 2005. Malcolm clearly has an eye for future success so Colleen's book is sure to do well).
I haven't read the book – yet – but it does promise to be a quality read, written by an insider, analysing the historical events which have led to the sad demise of a once flourishing media empire.
Read the full text of the Turnbull launch speech here. The front cover of the Ryan book quotes Turnbull saying: "this is a cautionary tale about arrogance, complacency and the certainty of powerful men that nothing will disturb their self-importance”.
Wow, great quote Malcolm and a nice teaser to sum up the clinical assessment by Ryan of the historical decisions, politics and poor judgement made at Fairfax.
But the most interesting promise of the book is its treatment of the rise of the digital age, and Fairfax's slow-off-the-mark attempts to keep pace with the dismantling of traditional hard copy media platforms.
In an interview with ABC TV at the time of the launch, Ryan described the failure by Fairfax to hold onto key online assets such as realestate.com and carsales.com. This meant the business lost a key equity stake in the highly prized 'rivers of gold' classified advertising. This, in her estimation, represented a catastrophic decision leading to the loss of a stake in online businesses now valued at some $8 billion by the market.
Back in March, my blog post discussed the impending arrival of the paywall built around Fairfax's online publications.
That day passed earlier this month, with the company announcing a combined model of ‘freemium’ content as well as free access to 30 articles online before the paywall comes down.
Is it a case of too little too late?
Sadly, I believe so.
I have good friends who remain loyal scribes within the Pyrmont Fairfax HQ. And as I walk across the Pyrmont Bridge from the west to the city each day I have often had the good fortune to meet those good people on their way to work. There have been times when the frequency of those exchanges meant I was delayed getting to work, catching up briefly.
These days however, with fewer of those long-term journalists working at Fairfax, the chance g'days are fewer.
For consumers of quality journalism this is a bad omen.
We can only hope that the paywall exercise at Fairfax works, much as it appears to be functional over at the News Limited stable. For no media business on the planet has been able to succeed on the old model of free content (and arrogance).
