Build The Wall- Analysis

The article, Build The Wall, is available here on the Columbia Journalism Review website.


1) Summarise each section in one sentence

• Section 1: This section states that news should be paid through subscriptions to keep the industry stable
• Section 2: Evaluates the pro's/con's of establishing a paywall through using examples, and the risks establishing a paywall may carry and the impact of revenues on the industry
• Section 3: The change in news and revenue since 1995, evaluates statistics. 
• Section 4: Discusses the different scenarios that may take place if newspapers establish the paywall and the impact each scenario will have on revenue etc. 

2) Summarise David Simon’s overall argument in 250 words.

David Simon's argument is that paywall's are necessary to keep newspapers going and the industry stable. Simon states in the article that if newspapers are going to establish a paywall on their online site, all other newspapers would need to do the same to keep the industry going, as readers will ultimately prefer to read the free version of news rather than the paid version. He states how online subscriptions are a bad idea. Also, he states how there is a "mix of journalism" that justifies a subscription fee. 
To add,  that content matters and they would have to find a way to make people pay for the content, which can only be done by professional journalism. "If you do not find a way to make people pay for your product, then you are--if you choose to remain in this like of work--delusional". 

The industry has already mad the world wide web a place for an " advertising opportunity" for their actual products. Readers rightly identify the immediate “digitized version” of newspapers as superior due to the advances in new and digital media. The internet content is free and this allows citizen journalism to be dominant in how audiences receive their news. 



3)

The article suggests that the success of the NYT paywall was due to the fact there was a "commitment to quality journalism" with quality and in-depth reporting, in an age where certain things that should be kept quiet can also go viral in seconds. For me, the difference between US(i.e New York) and non US consumption , is suggested that places where people buy physical copies of newspapers is due to the fact it is advertised as a quality media more than in no-US countries. 
However, the article states the NYT as a global news source is very high which helped grow it's subscriber count grow and not as many people are buying as many print news versions in the US than those from non-US countries- " As much as 13 per cent of digital subscriber growth arrives from outside the U.S. ", the number of people accessing the NYT news is reaching 100,000. 
The article brings to question the dilemma of NYT continuing to keep these suscription numbers high and growing. NYT's generating income comes up to $200m a year in their subscriptions . Also, that the problem, is if the revenue of print is on a contious downfall and the advertising of ads wavers it becomes a "huge challenge" in generating income. .


4)  

The article discusses the strength of, though small number of audiences,  can still have a continuous base of people to direct their news towards and the article suggests that this is very appealing to advertisers- "they are a valuable audience to advertisers". However, the counter argument made by the article is that teh arrival of paywalls from a buyers perspective is that the pageviews would go down. This means because of the price set for subscriptions many people may be put off to pay the prices for the news they could get from other sites. Also, that the "uniques" of the news would be hard to come by, as people would only pay for news if it is 'quality . If the news that audiences are paying for is easily accessible from other sources it decreases the 'uniqueness' of said news and the amount if revenue institutions can make from news and advertisements will also decreases. 


5) 

The article talks about the effects and positive/negative aspects of new/digital media on the newspaper industry.. Varying opinions and debates are brought up and created, the vast amount of information is available thus making the world "porous to information" , Grayling states that institutions nervous of this ability will start to police the internet to find this information. Also, negatives that were brought up were that there was "volume rubbish" online and the weak presense of news on othrt countries i.e USA. All round the article brings to light a view on how we have to allow the chages new and digital media has brought and accept us. 

6) 

For me, news should be a right for everyone around the world, society needs to allow people to know what is happening around them, some in the world aren't entitled to get news as they are unable to afford it or aren't allowed to view certain things. There should be something that is able to actually support newspapers, as they are on the decline, and some newspapers which are on the high=end spectrum should be allowed to use paywalls for their news. 
The journalist is being affected due to the lack of revenue going towards their work which would effect their work ,ultimately, good journalism.  However, paywalls have been shown to be quite unsuccessful such as with 'The Sun', while for me if I am able to gain news from an unbiased and free news(BBC; free and unbiased) I would be more likely if it is like that of news from a source which would want me to pay for.