Can the world go back and pay for news?

Recently I came across an article where Mudorh is creating a Kindle like hardware. In summary he is creating a Kindle like hardware (E-Book Reader) for his New Corp. He also went onto and say that New Publisher should be charging readers for news even when it is an on-line version. Just like his own Wall Street Journal. He stated: “People reading news for free on the web, that’s got to change.”

His statement first sounds to me is: People should be charged to read news. Prepare for the change. After a while of thinking, I think his statement is more: People, please pay for reading news! My investment is hurting! I need to change this if not I am F**k. Now in my humble opinion it is possible to change the this behavior? I am skeptical and don’t think is possible.

In the old time, people go to get/buy their news from one source. Then when Internet is invented, the behavior changes to, if you are willing to spend some time, you can almost find any news for free with some effort. Now with the current technology provided such as Twitter, Google Reader, RSS and so fourth… we are entering a new era: News comes to us. We are 2 stage away from the old ways. Now suggesting going back to the old times… is it possible? More news is now not only and exclusively generated by News agency or corps anymore… a lot of breaking news are from Bloggers and just ordinary people which happen to be at the incident. Such as the New York Airway crash, Sichun Earth Quake and more all these are blogged by a user before any news agent knows.

If that the case, news agent should be paying them! Will news agents pay them? NO. Why do people tend less to pay for news? More and more news that is generated nowadays are not exclusive any more. How much news on Wall Street Journal are exclusive? How much of them are just reiteration of the story which is already published else where? If so why should I pay for it? Furthermore, people also realize most of the news from big news corps are diluted. So at the end, the big question to pay for news comes down to: Why should I pay for old, diluted and non-exclusive news when I can get the real deal in real time for free?

However am I saying one day Wall Street Journal will go all free and there won’t be a market for pay news? I don’t think so. However in order to survive in the inevitable future, your news needs to be s**t hot and your writer need to be damn good. No more sloppy jobs, the internet is a cruel invention. It put every traditional professional to test.