Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.
All the news that's fit to give away
Author: Nick Sweeney Posted: 8/7/2000; 5:48:27 PM Topic: scriptingNews outline for 8/7/2000 Msg #: 19542 (In response to 19503) Prev/Next: 19541 / 19543
Quoting Dave:Surely they must have had the same kinds of debates that the music industry is having now, but they did it quietly. They give away their content, the stuff they still charge for in print. Quietly, in a NY Timesish way, they have become the authoritative voice in a new medium, as they were in the old.
I'm going to be a little patriotic here, and defend the BBC's news site as another "authoritative voice". (The same could be said for the Guardian's site, which is by far the most adventurous web presence among the UK's newspapers.)
I say this because these two sites never went through the indecision seen in the early days of the NYTimes online: anyone remember when overseas readers were ostensibly charged for access, so that you had to supply a US address in order to verify your "free" subscription? It took them about a year to work out that was doing them no good at all.
In fact, knowing people who've worked on BBC News Online, I can tell you that the site has liberated and invigorated the BBC's news coverage in much the same way that Napster re-connects you to music. Rather than honing down copy for the limited broadcast channels, journalists are able to add depth and context to their reports, and to build channels for community and debate that fulfil the international remit of the World Service. The content management system gives it the character of a polished collective weblog -- reporters are encouraged to edit graphics and so on. For sure, it's an investment, but it has meant that the corporation gets the very best out of its news team.
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