KANSAS CITY FACT: IF THE STAR KEEPS THEIR RSS FEEDS THE PAYWALL WON'T DO ANYTHING BUT HURT THEIR BIZ!!!
The Kansas City Star paywall is getting closer as Dead Tree Media circles the toilet bowl of history.
Bottom Line Communications has all of the relevant details:
KC STAR OUTLINES NEW PAYWALL POLICY
Now, here's the real question . . .
If the Star uses conventional wisdom and keeps their RSS feeds they're simply helping to put a nail in their coffin . . . However, a website without RSS loses rank and HUGE amounts of accessibility. So the situation at The Star really is a Catch-22.
Kill the RSS and their site will fall further behind KCTV5's web efforts.
Keep the RSS and readers will get the basics of the story and the details somewhere else.
Put simply . . . Paywalls don't work. If they did, Facebook would have charged long ago instead of hoping that one scheme after the next would power their stock (really only worth about $5) that employees are selling off.
There are a lot or reasons why but just look at TV news, Radio News, The Internets and just about every other media venture . . . PEOPLE DON'T CARE ABOUT DETAILS.
Most of you have written comments without reading this post. That's just the way of the world . . . In fact, studies reveal that most mainstream media news READERS only scan headlines and read a couple of sports stories that catch their eye.
Tragically . . . Only college sophomores and retired journalists mistakenly believe that the world cares enough to consider their thoughts from beginning to end.
And so . . . The Kansas City Star will chase away readers as the conversation and discourse continues to move to other media for better or worse but certainly because of corporate groupthink which refuses to realize that there's no future in mistaking history printed on Dead Trees for news.
Good analysis. It works for the NYT (sort of) because their readers actually do tend to read beyond the headlines. The same can be said for the WSJ. However, regional papers have too much competition to survive a pay wall. TV stations can make it work by embedding commercials into their clips. Perhaps the local newspapers are destined to become video outlets in order to compete.
ReplyDeleteThe Star is a bunch of middle aged white people who are technologically bankrupt. Those idiots would known an app from a mouse. Stop helping them Tony. Let them dig their own grave. It's a long time coming.
ReplyDeleteBut if the Star goes away, where will TKC get all the stories every day?
ReplyDeleteShoe leather reporting?
Get serious!
You would have thought your subscription to the paper, would have covered the paywall also. But,
ReplyDeleteThe Star should merge with it's brat offspring Ink, and come out daily in that format.
ReplyDeleteLook at the future of KC news. Tony is right, it's on TV.
ReplyDeleteOmg how will I get my JENEÉ OSTERHELDT!!
ReplyDeleteUh huh KC Star vs the entire Internet. Sounds like a great business model.
ReplyDeletePlease KC Star dont fade away! I always look forward to the Sunday paper and all the damn coupons inside!
ReplyDeleteLove Ya!
lol.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteC.S. Goosedwell writes: It was a paywall. Not a wall of stone or brick but a wall of money and not like any wall in the Ozarks. A wall you don't see on a beautiful autumn afternoon in Missouri.
What, paywalls don't work just because Slanderella says so? Guess again. They seem to work for Gannett.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, who are you gonna steal from?