Author Archive for crankynick

Media paywalls will target business, not consumers

Published
by
crankynick
2 months ago
in Media
. 22 Comments

Margaret Simons has an interesting piece up at Crikey talking about some research on whether people will pay for online content, and the likely move of The Oz to a paywall system.

It’s an interesting piece but she falls, like most others who’ve been talking about the issue, into the trap of assuming the default target for subscriptions will be individuals and the general public.

I doubt very much that it will be. There will be very few people at News Ltd that will be under the misapprehension that consumers will pay for content – the studies are pretty clear, and their analysts are in the business of making money off clear plans, not blind hope.

Unless you keep the subscription rates very low (less than $30 a year, say), there would be little prospect of getting individual subscriptions for basic news content – and that money would probably be more of a hassle to collect than the revenue is worth.

But there’s an alternate model. Continue reading ‘Media paywalls will target business, not consumers’

Worst. Campaign. Ever.

Published
by
crankynick
1 year, 6 months ago
in Government, Polls and State/Territory Elections
. 70 Comments

This was the worst campaign I have ever seen run by the ALP.

Ever.

This was an election where all of the ALP’s problems over the last 6-8 years came home to roost.

There was no central theme. The campaign material was ugly, late out, badly written, and largely unrelated to anything voters actually cared about.

The central campaign was a shambles, courtesy of a complete disconnect between the Parliamentary Labor party, party office, and the lay ALP membership.

Continue reading ‘Worst. Campaign. Ever.’

Day 1 of the WA State Election…and we’re all bored already.

Published
by
crankynick
1 year, 7 months ago
in State/Territory Elections
. 57 Comments

In a fit of predictability, incumbent Labor Premier Alan “I used to be a credible journalist, don’t you know” Carpenter is promising “vision, leadership, and stability” – the last one of the three, at least, might play to Labor’s strengths.

Resurrected Liberal leader Colin “Don’t mention the canal” Barnett is promising that he’s not Troy Buswell. And doesn’t at all look like the kind of bloke who could be caught sniffing chairs.

The first night is all about predictability – Barnett is claiming that the snap election has been called because Labor is running scared (of him, presumably). Carpenter is denying that the snap election has been called to take advantage of the leadership turmoil in the Liberal ranks.

Despite some rustlings of dissent from the local commentariat – local political commentators are largely calling the move a political mistake – a call based largely, I suspect, on the idea that if Barnett isn’t as thoroughly unpopular as Buswell was, the Libs should therefore cruise to an easy win.

There may be something to that view – certainly Buswell was regarded in WA with the kind of amused contempt that makes it difficult to get any political traction, and it is entirely possible that WA electors have forgotten exactly why it is they didn’t vote for Barnett last time. And there is no doubt at all that Carpenter isn’t held in the same regard as Geoff Gallop, and certainly doesn’t have the same campaigning experience as his predecessor.

But when you consider the raw mechanics of Carpenter’s decision, it starts to look like a potentially very good decision indeed.

Continue reading ‘Day 1 of the WA State Election…and we’re all bored already.’