(BuildingWebsiteNews) Finance pages tangled as web revolution overwhelms print evolution - The Age

Online distribution costs are much lower than newspaper distribution costs but the online culture is free. That is close to $US50 million in annual revenue but Murdoch appears willing to forgo that in the belief that by using the full resources of News Corp to make The Wall Street Journal a global media brand, he will reap a harvest of increased audiences and advertising revenue that will outweigh the lost subscription revenue. For years, Murdoch was an internet sceptic, but recently he has seen that media companies need to be far more shrewd and selective about when they charge for media content, and be willing to give away content online to try to create a virtuous circle of growing awareness and growing demand. Owned by a combination of business people (John Wylie) and journalists (Stephen Bartholomeusz, Robert Gottliebsen, Alan Kohler), Business Spectator is aimed at about 40,000 top business executives, lawyers, senior public servants, politicians and regulators with estimated average annual incomes of $150,000, according to a pitch that has been shown to prospective clients. It is banking on drawing advertisers keen to reach a potentially exclusive, wealthy audience, people who are "constantly online, via office and home PCs and mobile devices" but are "extremely hard to reach as they are light consumers of commercial media". read more

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