Jakob Augstein, publisher of the left-learning Der Freitag, is not keen on the right-wing politics of Springer Verlag, but he is all in favor of the groups plans to charge for access to the online versions if its flagship papers Die Welt and Bild-Zeitung:
Wenn Journalismus eine Zukunft haben soll, muss der Leser zahlen. Aber
der Leser hat im Netz das Zahlen für Inhalte verlernt. Inhalte sind der
freiverfügbare Rohstoff der Online-Welt. Ungeachtet ihrer Qualität. Das
ist gefährlich. Die Verlage werden ihren Lesern den Unterschied zwischen
Qualität und Quantität wieder beibringen müssen.
(If there is a future for journalism, the reader has topay. But on the Internet the reader is no longer accustomed to paying for content. Content is raw material of the online-world – irrespective of its quality. That poses a danger. The publishers need to educate their readers on the difference between quality and quantiy.)
What is at stake here? Nothing less than the future of democracy:
Ohne Journalismus gibt es keine Demokratie. Vielleicht ist unser
Journalismus nicht gut genug. Sicher ist unsere Demokratie nicht gut
genug. Aber das eine braucht das andere, und das Netz untergräbt beides.(Without journalism there is no democracy. It may well be that our journalism is not good enough. Our democracy is certainly not good enough. But they need each other, and the Internet undermines both.)
Meanwhile Arianna Huffington is setting up shop in Germany:
News website The Huffington Post will
launch a German edition this year, the US-based company and its media
partner Tomorrow Focus, part of the Burda publishing group, said on
Monday.A newsroom staffed with German
journalists will be set up in the southern city of Munich in the coming
months, and the site for Germany, Austria and Switzerland is set to go
live later this year, both companies said.The free-access site,
which offers a mix of news, blogs and gossip, was founded by Arianna
Huffington, the editor-in-chief. It already has local versions in
Britain, Canada, France, Italy and Spain and plans to launch a Japanese
edition in May.
Arianna's model? Don't pay the bloggers a dime, and get rich off the advertising.
