John F Kennedy III
05-25-2012, 01:34 PM
Warren Buffett Buying Up Newspapers, Eyeing Internet Paywalls for Content
Aaron Dykes
Infowars.com
May 25, 2012
The Buffett-Berkshire Borg is now openly swallowing up newspapers, acquring 63 new papers this month, including the Richmond Times-Dispatch and other Media General Inc. (MEG) holdings. Further, Buffett signaled his readiness to fight back for establishment media power in the age of a dying print industry and wild west web threatened with new regulations.
Buffett hinted that “free content” on the Internet might be curbed, with emerging attempts to make paywalls to access news content acceptable to the public. Of course, papers and most other websites already use advertising for revenue. Buffett stated:
“This is an unsustainable model and certain of our papers are already making progress in moving to something that makes more sense,” in a letter to Berkshire-controlled editors and publishers. “We want your best thinking as we work out the blend of digital and print that will attract both the audience and the revenue we need.”
The NY Times has begun its paywall already, expecting to haul in some $125 million in the next year. Gannett plans to put some 80 papers behind a paywall soon. Buffett will likely go that way, too. He owns a controlling share of flagship establishment papers like the Washington Times. This wave of media consolidation coincides with the ongoing attempts to curtail Internet freedoms and enable rapid website shutdowns on the basis of reported copyright violation claims, and other related provisions being pushed under bills like CISPA, SOPA, PIPA and in treaties like ACTA, which the EU has signed. Bilderberger and EU Commissioner Neelie Kroes this week announced her efforts to impose a mandatory Internet ID scheme on all citizens of Europe.
Buffett also mentioned his plans to continue buying up newspapers and other media in the years to come. He is looking to reignite the business model, but that’s not all.
The fight is about more than revenue. It’s about ideas, and content. The establishment is well aware they are fighting for relevancy and audience influence. And they don’t like that people are analyzing their reports for bias rather than accepting it as fact.
In the golden age of network TV news and big daily papers, steering public opinion by controlling news content was relatively easy. Today, the lies are cheaper and more prevalent, and the audience share is fractured everywhere. The reach (into the mind of an impressionable schmuck) of an average cable news program or metro daily has dwindled significantly.
The unabashed truth about political scandals and world events that became available in the budding alternative news outlets based on the Internet. This raw coverage transformed the debate and public conversation. Meanwhile, social media has redefined our interactions in many profound ways, in part by enabling live coverage of newsworthy events to circulate the globe– all without being whitewashed & filtered first through the media gatekeepers regurgitated-cud “news” machine. People not only looked outside their blinders, but got a taste for the difference between real news information and the framed psyops that have been sold as “news” and fed as fodder to the dulled down public for many decades now.
original article here:
http://www.infowars.com/warren-buffett-buying-up-newspapers-eyeing-internet-paywalls-for-content/
Aaron Dykes
Infowars.com
May 25, 2012
The Buffett-Berkshire Borg is now openly swallowing up newspapers, acquring 63 new papers this month, including the Richmond Times-Dispatch and other Media General Inc. (MEG) holdings. Further, Buffett signaled his readiness to fight back for establishment media power in the age of a dying print industry and wild west web threatened with new regulations.
Buffett hinted that “free content” on the Internet might be curbed, with emerging attempts to make paywalls to access news content acceptable to the public. Of course, papers and most other websites already use advertising for revenue. Buffett stated:
“This is an unsustainable model and certain of our papers are already making progress in moving to something that makes more sense,” in a letter to Berkshire-controlled editors and publishers. “We want your best thinking as we work out the blend of digital and print that will attract both the audience and the revenue we need.”
The NY Times has begun its paywall already, expecting to haul in some $125 million in the next year. Gannett plans to put some 80 papers behind a paywall soon. Buffett will likely go that way, too. He owns a controlling share of flagship establishment papers like the Washington Times. This wave of media consolidation coincides with the ongoing attempts to curtail Internet freedoms and enable rapid website shutdowns on the basis of reported copyright violation claims, and other related provisions being pushed under bills like CISPA, SOPA, PIPA and in treaties like ACTA, which the EU has signed. Bilderberger and EU Commissioner Neelie Kroes this week announced her efforts to impose a mandatory Internet ID scheme on all citizens of Europe.
Buffett also mentioned his plans to continue buying up newspapers and other media in the years to come. He is looking to reignite the business model, but that’s not all.
The fight is about more than revenue. It’s about ideas, and content. The establishment is well aware they are fighting for relevancy and audience influence. And they don’t like that people are analyzing their reports for bias rather than accepting it as fact.
In the golden age of network TV news and big daily papers, steering public opinion by controlling news content was relatively easy. Today, the lies are cheaper and more prevalent, and the audience share is fractured everywhere. The reach (into the mind of an impressionable schmuck) of an average cable news program or metro daily has dwindled significantly.
The unabashed truth about political scandals and world events that became available in the budding alternative news outlets based on the Internet. This raw coverage transformed the debate and public conversation. Meanwhile, social media has redefined our interactions in many profound ways, in part by enabling live coverage of newsworthy events to circulate the globe– all without being whitewashed & filtered first through the media gatekeepers regurgitated-cud “news” machine. People not only looked outside their blinders, but got a taste for the difference between real news information and the framed psyops that have been sold as “news” and fed as fodder to the dulled down public for many decades now.
original article here:
http://www.infowars.com/warren-buffett-buying-up-newspapers-eyeing-internet-paywalls-for-content/