But they don't know yet how to take advantage

Horribly abused by the crisis, the American media still seek the magic recipe that will make them switch - with profits to key - in the digital age. Chris Anderson's latest book, "free", is not made to reassure them. The editor of "wired" believes that free is the only possible price for content. According to him, the Web has a deflationary power that tender price to zero. The best online services (Google, Yahoo!, email storage, YouTube videos, announcements of Craig's list...) are free of charge and therefore their "viral" effect is huge. Adopted by hundreds of millions of users, they allow their suppliers to pay with advertising. Would they have chosen to be paid by micropayment that their revenues were much lower and their much narrower audience. The puzzle is terrible for those who produce directly of content, newspapers in mind. How agree to give the cost to manufacture

When Zenith Optimedia provides that advertising revenue will reduce overall 8.5 this year, the advertising may be the only solution. The media can also earn money by selling information about their customers and subscribers (a delicate exercise), offering subscriptions with services premiums, or e-commerce with partners. For writing, Jeff Bezos, Amazon pattern, was recently found "that the content is sold if its container is suitable for the user.He evidenced with the Kindle, the e-book. Since its launch, it allows you to subscribe to newspapers which are distributed every day by cell binding, for a sum ranging from $ 6 to $ 15 per month. Initially, rendering was fairly unconvincing: the newspaper was presented linearly - text string without images - and the little easy navigation. With the release of the new model DX, this summer, including the screen is much broader, each article will be maquetté, with his illustrations. Three daily newspapers are trying to test this month: "new york times", the "Washington Post" and the "Boston Globe". "It is an important step between paper and digital." "On marie the immediacy of the second with the portability and depth of the daily," Arthur Sulzberger Jr., Chairman of the "New York Times" found.

The iPhone inspired

The extraordinary success of the Apple iPhone, with more than 1.5 billion applications downloaded, inspired even more publishers ("wall street Journal", "New York Times"...) which are in the forefront of the classification of free applications the more downloaded... but who find themselves far behind the games and other practical programs in the list of pay programs. Beyond a handful of applications "news" paid content incorporate however already advertising (logo, banner during the download of a page, insert in the slide show, etc.). And some great titles such as the Wall Street Journal will switch in a part model in the universe iPhone this fall.

Another digital phenomenon captivates the attention of the press patterns: Twitter, instant messaging on mobile phone, which has become the third largest social network in the world. But they don't know yet how to take advantage. And Twitter showed its fragility week last with the interruption of its service for several hours following a computer attack. John Malone, Chairman of Liberty Media, think that if users are sufficiently "addicted", they will accept to pay a subscription for this new service, very fashionable. For Barry Diller, pattern of IAC/Interactive Corp. "it is a great service, but not a natural channel for advertising," said the "New York Times" at the Summit of the gotha of media early July in Sun Valley, Idaho.