Barry Diller: NYT Paywall Will Work, Someday
In an interview with Bloomberg TV’s Betty Liu, IAC/InterActive CEO Barry Diller said that The New York Times would eventually succeed in charging for its online content, but that the news business in general is a long way off from being able to appropriately price its offerings.
Diller foresees an end to the era of free content, because of changes in the consumer environment. He said consumers’ increasing willingness to pay small amounts for applications on mobile devices is a big factor in the change from free to paid content.
Still, outlets like The New York Times face an uphill battle, Diller said. Users won’t pay for all existing content: “What will be always free and always kind of was free are things that are commodities. Anything that’s a commodity in terms of information has very little value.”
But to Diller, there’s hope. He drew an analogy between news and music:
Here was the music business, everything was being stolen. Everything was deemed free even though the technology allowed it to be stolen. Everyone said, no one will pay for music. It took seven or eight years for the iTunes concept … and now it’s a multibillion business. People are paying for music, they could get it free, but they’re paying for it.
Video after the jump.
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