[Reader-list] Pay or free? Newspaper archives not ready for open Web... yet

[Adreesh Katyal]

Pay or free? Newspaper archives not ready for open Web... yet

Wouldn't it be great if Google searches brought up every past
newspaper article? But publishers aren't interested in opening up old
articles if it would hurt their value in lucrative after-market
database sales.

By Mark Glaser
Posted: 2005-02-01

Ken Doctor
Martin Nisenholtz
Luke Rosenberger

Simon Waldman

Information wants to be free -- as long as you don't have to pay the
people who dug up that information. While the Net has long been
associated with free things -- free e-mail, free personal Web pages,
free searches -- the news business has been repulsed by the notion
that their hard-won scoops and journalism should be given away for
free.

But the newspaper business has had little choice but to open its gates
online so people can read breaking news for free. How else to compete
with free news from CNN.com, NPR.org, Newsweek.com and the plethora of
advertising-supported sites? Now, a rising chorus of voices is calling
for more: free archives at newspaper sites so that search engine and
blogger links will remain live, newspapers can retain their authority
in Google and articles can remain part of the online conversation.

See http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/050201/