Rupert Murdoch's statements on paid-for content generated hundreds of column inches, and a Google search throws up the best part of 1,000 stories. All the ones I've had time to look at have been free, natch. Closer to home, the story also generated an engaging comment trail here on printweek.com and this blog from Matt Whipp.
Meanwhile, some further interesting newspaper news has emerged, somewhat lower key but potentially pretty impactful if others follow suit. PrintWeek reports that Guardian Media Group is going to scrap all its bulk distribution copies. It's not a huge chunk of circulation for The Guardian and The Observer, but even at a rough guesstimate it will mean around 50,000 fewer commercially printed supplements are required each week, maybe more. Will others follow suit? No doubt Polestar, Prinovis and Trader Media Print Group will be among those watching developments closely.
Apparently GMG is going to put additional effort into its subs strategy, a topic I looked at in a previous post. As a follow-up to that, I have now received a further offer from News International, which is obviously expanding the delivery service it tested with the News of the World. NI will deliver the Times and The Sunday Time to me free, by courier, by 7am every day, if I sign up to a direct debit subs package.
Charting the take-up of such paid-for subs will be as interesting as that of paid-for content.
