News: If It Isn't Online and Accessible It Doesn't Exist

Earlier I started a series on internet news, then took a hiatus part way through. I will be getting back to that later. Today I want to write a brief opinion piece on news items on the internet, specifically on what is accessible. It's something I run into every day.

If your news is not on the internet or if it is but is behind a pay wall, or any type of wall, it doesn't exist.

Keep in mind I am talking about news, not other types of content. News is time-sensitive and quickly loses its value, except, perhaps, to some future historian. That's why I spent so much time talking about timeliness in previous posts. When you delay or otherwise impede my access to that news it rapidly descends to zero value. Let me explain by means of some methods many publications continue to use:

• Publish a teaser on the internet then direct readers to the full article in their print edition.
• Publish a teaser of headline on the internet then ask readers to pay for the chargable online edition.
• Delay publication to the internet site.

I got reminded of these tactics this morning when I scanned the online edition of the Ottawa Business Journal. The article I clicked used the first of the above tactics. This is particularly perplexing since the print version is free, provided you know where to find one and will travel there to get it. In my view the OBJ has several problems with their online property, of which this is only one.

Do they believe their truncated article will prompt me to leave my office and look for the print edition? That's asking a lot. They won't even profit if I do it. Further, I know the article is old, perhaps a week or more, since it had to go through the paper publication process. Their strategy fails to win me as a reader. Not only that, they are training me to believe they are unreliable as a source; why bother to check their articles when they may abruptly end in the middle. Annoyance, lack of timeliness and increased distribution friction are poor marketing strategies.

Returning to the larger issue of news, any publication that demands I rush out to buy the paper edition or pay to pass a pay wall is marginalizing themselves. Nowadays I can almost always get equal or better content on the internet, with links conveniently located alongside theirs. Competition is imperilling them. Like that old cliche, the internet routes around failure; if I click on your article and don't get what I want when I want, I click elsewhere. And I may never return to try again.

Others have said it better than I could, that publications must make their news available, in full, immediately and with wide internet distribution. They will have to adapt to their business models to the new medium. Many publications are working to make this happen, and are beginning to see some success. This is an exciting and interesting time for the consumers of news, even if we occasionally grow frustrated at the barriers we encounter.