Anant’s blog: Create valuable content

There are the odd days when I need to work on the computer and yet want to watch sports as well. Obviously, this is tough to do.

So I make do without a major compromise; I carry on with my writing or whatever and catch the commentary on www.news.bbc.co.uk.

Lots of terrific commentary available; cricket, golf, football.

Not so much football, though, because of rights issues – they can’t broadcast beyond a defined footprint which does not include India. I wish I could pay for the commentary.

That’s just one example of my willingness to pay for content on the net.

I’d pay for unlimited access to www.dictionary.com. I’d pay for www.huffingtonpost.com. I would have, when he was writing regularly, happily paid to read Dave Barry’s posts. I’d pay to access all the content on www.nmauk.co.uk, the magnificent newspaper advertising resource.

I don’t have to; they’re all free.

Will they be free forever?

The print media in India is taking a beating; pagination is down, some newspapers have scrapped supplements, ad volumes and ad rates are shrinking.

Something’s got to give – the numbers just don’t add up.

If the revenue from advertising is shrinking alarmingly, the only other recourse is to ramp up revenue from the readers.

Readers of the newspaper and online readers.

It’s time to start looking at shoring up revenues from people like me – and I’ll be surprised if the numbers are small.

Obviously, a lot will depend on how much one is charged and how easy it is to pay for it.

The only content that I pay for currently is for access to the restricted, members-only non-free content on www.liverpoolfc.tv. Charges are reasonable and you can finish your transaction in a jiffy.

Will I pay to read The Times of India or Hindustan Times online as I so happily do to receive the physical paper?

Not when I live in Mumbai. But my brother who lives in the UK might, as might my sister in Singapore – as long as the charges are reasonable.

It’s time newspaper managers started looking at people like me and looked at creating content that readers appreciate enough to pay for.

For a start, why don’t you use the comments option to list sites that you wouldn’t mind paying a reasonable fee to access if they went pay?