Murdoch's War

This is a savage time. A ruthless environment where men are constantly looking over their shoulders for fear of that grim reaper, recession. It's a time when competition is bloodthirsty, and in an already starving market the vultures are having a hard time finding meat on the publics bone. Naturally it doesn't stop them trying to pick the remaining flesh off the economically anorexic public and already-plumped Rupert Murdoch is wetting his beak with yet another fist-tightening venture.

In a recent web war with Google, the jewel-eyed media mogul has accused the news aggregate site of 'kleptomania' as they haven't been playing 'fair' recently, stealing advertising revenue by linking to Murdoch's news sites. Currently only 1 in 10 people pay for content online, and Murdoch seeks to change all that.

Announcing the recent plans to erect pay walls for his content on the web, readers will soon have to pay for online papers such as the Sun and the Times. Lifting the other middle finger firmly in the air, Murdoch is also teaming up with uber-nerd Bill Gates to create 'Bing', a search engine designed to rival Google and exclusively link to Murdoch's news empire.

Since the recession hit, UK advertising has been hit hard with online advertising falling 2.1%. This has had a knock-on effect on print journalism as people are more likely to get their truth injection online instead of over breakfast. Lacking in revenue, print publications have been falling like lead balloons, throwing journalists out the basket like sandbags.

Is this the beginning of the end for the humble print journalist? Fear not, a recent report from the KPMG suggests they're still a long way off from getting people to pay for content and entertainment online. However the public have been slowly spoon-fed the idea thanks to Apple's itunes and 'apps', and it seems we're getting a taste for it. How long before we're emptying our paypal accounts desperate to download the latest app to tell us to how to think because we've even forgotten to do that for ourselves?

The internet is becoming a bigger part in our lives every day, and like a crack dealer it's got us hooked and now it's preying on our weakness. James Harding (editor of the Times) promised recently to 'rewrite the economics of newspapers' with plans for 24hr subscriptions to online news sites, using slogans such as 'the first click's free'. I'm sure he meant to say 'hit'.

As a would-be journalist I'm not sure where I stand. On the one hand Murdoch's driving revenue to the very institutions I'm aspiring to, but something leaves a sour taste in my mouth. When internet users have been weaned on free content, and anything that begs a subscription will get hacked, cracked and exploited all over the web, how can one man seek to control content on the world wide web?