5.31.2009

Public hints at zero readership for Time Warner publications

Time Warner CEO hints at online fees for magazines.
One of the world's largest magazine publishers appears to be having second thoughts about giving away most of its articles on the Internet.

Time Warner CEO Jeffrey Bewkes told an investor conference Friday that he doesn't think it makes much sense for publishers to provide their content without a way to recover the production costs.

But Bewkes didn't say whether Time Warner's magazine group, which includes Time, People and Sports Illustrated, is considering charging fees for access to its Web sites.

Hey, it worked great for the New York Times, right? You all are still paying for TimesSelect, right?

Who in their right minds would pay for garbage like People online when much better content like WWTDD is free? And Time? It's a worthless roundup of news stories, the same thing you can get on the front page of Yahoo News or Google News. It's not as interesting or timely as Drudge.

The Economist successfully charges for some content, but that's because it actually has exceptionally good, original writing. Time Warner has no hope of ever attracting that type of talent, or readers literate enough to appreciate it.

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