Why I don't buy the Times anymore

 Murdoch’s Paywall a failure?

Early indications are that the paywall experiment with the Times, putting the contact behind a pay as you read subscription, has not succeeded. Is this bad news for journalism or do I just want bad news for News International?

In April Murdoch complained to an audience of journalists at George Washington State University: "They [Search Engines] take [content] for nothing," he said, and the practice had to be “stamped out”. Murdoch seemed confident that Internet users will be persuaded to pay for news content, so long as others join News Corporation and charge too. "When they have got nowhere else to go they will start paying. If it is reasonable. No one is going to ask for a lot of money," he said.

The Independent on 2^nd September seemed to think the experiment has floundered. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/online/has-rupert-murdochs-paywall-gamble-paid-off-2067907.html

The report points to the great scoop the Times crime writer, Sean O’Niel, had about the return from Cyprus of the disgraced entrepreneur, Asil Nadil, to face charges in the UK.  But a Google search cannot find O’Neil’s seminal article - but does find lots of follow up pieces from free on line papers.

Not only has the Times’ advertising revenue fallen since the paywall was introduced,  but the circulation of the physical paper has dropped too.

But is Murdoch playing it long? He has endured losses on print journalism for a long time and may be prepared to carry on and hope other papers will join him behind the barricades. Anyway, one suspects that the old man’s pride might stop him admitting failure.

Personally, I have stopped buying the physical paper. I used to put aside my squeamishness about Murdoch’s empire for the quality of the paper. I was sorely tested by the Murdoch press’ response to the Andy Coulson telephone bugging affair – they seemed to have failed to notice the story. So much for journalistic integrity.

However,  I bought the paper often and then used the website to call up articles I later remembered or made a notebook entry about. The social care articles are often very good.

 But now, without access to the back catalogue, why bother with the Times?