Lack Of Enough Unique Content And Usefulness Hits The Times of London Pay Site Hard - September 30, 2010
Still no word from News International on the financial success of it pay walls for The Times and The Sunday Times, but one thing is for sure – readership is way down -- according to comScore, and based on success stories elsewhere in Europe a rethink is needed on how to do it right.

British Politicians And Scotland Yard May Be Afraid To Take On Murdoch, But Not So The New York Times – It’s A Trans-Atlantic Newspaper War Aimed At The Jugular - September 8, 2010
Rupert Murdoch makes no secret the editorial changes he has made at his Wall Street Journal are intended to topple The New York Times as America’s newspaper of record. But the “Gray Lady” until now has mostly ginned and bared it but suddenly with an investigative report months in the making she has sunk her teeth viciously into Murdoch in the UK some 3,000 miles away from the main New York battlefield. The resulting hoop-la has the UK government, Parliament, Scotland Yard, politicians and celebrities all in a tizzy and for a change it is Murdoch’s News of the World tabloid finding itself defending itself from newspaper allegations.

Murdoch May Get Out-Murdoched - June 24, 2010
UK national newspaper publishers still shudder at the Rupert Murdoch inspired newsstand war fought to protect The Times that began in 1993 and took 15 years to end with rivers of red ink flooding Fleet Street. Now Richard Desmond who has his own tabloid and magazine publishing empire says come July he’s starting another price war targeting tabloids by cutting the price of his Daily Star by half.

There’s A Disconnect Between The 10% Editorial Cuts At The Times And Sunday Times And Their Hiding Behind Pay Walls In June - May 20, 2010
Much has been made of the general interest Times and Sunday Times in London going behind pay walls in June with the common belief that editorial would be beefed up to entice the public to pay since similar editorial products are available elsewhere for free. So much for that – both newspapers have announced 10% editorial cuts.

Did The Mail On Sunday Expect Thanks From Its Readers For Skewering The English 2018 FIFA World Cup Bid? - May 18, 2010
Frankly, it was journalism at its most disgusting – a former girl friend invites the head of the English Football Association (FA) and leader of its 2018 World Cup bid to a private lunch, she carried a secret wire, he talked about some extremely damaging international football bribery allegations, she sold that to a Sunday newspaper for £75,000, he had to resign and justifiably the newspaper got lambasted for an exclusive story that may well have destroyed the 2018 bid.

If Newspaper Industry Salvation Means Very Rich Entrepreneurs Investing In Better Journalism To Reap Just Rewards, Then Let’s Wish The Russian Oligarch Good Luck In London With The Independent! - April 1, 2010
In his early life in London Alexander Lebedev was a KGB man, but he struck it rich with the fall of communism and it is now he who often publicly expounds all the good thoughts about freedom of the press that those in the West grew up with. He is now backing up his words with deeds by buying two London national newspapers, promising to breathe new life into them as they lay practically at the mortician’s door.

Will Murdoch’s Pay Wall Work? It’s The Math, Stupid - March 31, 2010
So Rupert Murdoch has finally announced what the entire newspaper industry has been waiting for -- his pay wall scheme for his two UK quality newspapers. Success will be determined not by the hoards that leave the site, but rather by the resulting bottom line mix of subscription revenue and advertising. Or put another way, will the resulting subscription revenue much more than make up for the decline in the resulting advertising revenue?

Can The UK Government Survive Another Newspaper Relaunch Before The May Elections? - February 24, 2010
The Observer, the world’s oldest Sunday newspaper, relaunched this week with a huge scoop – the serialization of a new book accusing Prime Minister Gordon Brown of bullying 10 Downing Street staff. With a general election coming up in some 70 days that’s just what the Prime Minister, behind slightly in the polls, didn’t need. But what great publicity The Observer got from it all and a great lesson for everyone – if you’re doing a relaunch go for the “big bang”!

UK Nationals Continue Their Downward Spiral -- More Than 1.3 Million Copies For The Dailies And Sundays In A Year – But Not Everyone Agrees Web Pay Walls Are The Solution - February 17, 2010
Circulation for the 11 UK national daily newspapers fell by 773,211 copies in the 12 months to January, a 7.1% drop while for the 11 Sunday newspapers circulation was down 650,709, a 6% fall. Some of that came from the end of bulk distribution for some titles, some a by-product of less promotion spend, and not everyone agrees with Murdoch that pay walls are the solution.

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