Who said dinosaurs were extinct?

Well the Murdochosaurus (see what I did there) reared its head this morning, declaring: “Quality journalism is not cheap.”

He went on to say, “The digital revolution has opened new and inexpensive distribution channels but it has not made content free.”

Erm, yes it has Mr Murdoch. Where have you been all these years?

Murdoch’s plan is to charge users to access content on all his news sites. Faced with massive losses across the whole of News Corp (a whopping £2bn net loss) he is looking defensive – and desperate.

Perhaps he is a projection of the panic gripping old media in 2009.  His announcement today looks like a rear guard action by a man who knows his chips are down and thinks that simply asking for money will solve all his problems.

Talking of defensive he also exclaims, “We’ll be asserting our copyright at every point”. Oh happy day for some very expensive lawyers who will be working 24/7 fighting anyone who dares to plagiarise a story in The Sun. I’d like to see their financial projections for this litigation and compare that to the funds they get from subscription or pay-per-view fees. I’ve got a feeling the lawyers are the only ones going to win here.

Murdoch’s attack on free news comes after Lionel Barber, editor of the Financial Times, declared on Tuesday this week that, “…information has a price – it’s valuable and therefore we should charge for it”. But he’s in a lucky position because in his case he does sell FT content and why he can do this successfully gets to the heart of the charging issue.

As media commentator Roy Greenslade says, “[The FT] can charge for its content because its audience is well-heeled and its readers need that information to do their jobs”. The distinction between ‘niche’ and ‘general’ news content is important – people will pay for the former but they won’t for the latter when they can get it for free elsewhere.

The Wall Street Journal is also cited by Murdoch (he owns it) as an example but the WSJ is the same as the FT – its audience is a wealthy demographic and its content is niche, differentiated and authoritative enough to charge for. The same cannot be said for the News of the World, The Sun and to an extent The Times.

Interestingly some are suggesting that it will be the free content providers – the blogosphere and online news aggregators – that are set to win if Murdoch’s plan succeeds.

In Australia’s Business Spectator today, Stephen Bartholomeusz writes, “an increasingly large audience has become completely accustomed to obtaining their news and information for free, the introduction of charges…would inevitably decimate their online audiences and consequently their online advertising revenues – and swell the audiences and revenues of sites that aren’t trying to protect legacy revenues and value.”

In essence Bartholomeusz argues that traditional media is moving too late and, “charging for content is…an admission of failure among the traditional publishers to come up with a better response”.

But is it too late?

The Daily Telegraph seems to suggest not quite. Their digital editor, Edward Roussel seems to have the right idea when he says, “The fundamental value of journalism is that you pull in a wide audience, then you can direct them to a series of high value services that they’ll pay for.”

The Telegraph does this by selling goods and services (panama hats anyone?), successful games (fantasy football and cricket). It also gets revenue from its personal finance site.

The Huffington Post is leading the way for free, authoritative and respected news in the US. To Murdoch and traditional media it is the enemy and is blamed for the threat to The New York Times and The Washington Post. The Huff is a social media and blogging success story by anyone’s standards.

However take a closer look and this example opens a whole new seam of argument.

Conor Clark in The Atlantic writes, “…the blogosphere is completely reliant – completely parasitic – on the very institutions they are driving to bankruptcy”. As he points out, check out The Huffington Post and “see how many of its main stories are from The New York Times and The Washington Post.”

Murdoch and old media should take note – there’s room for everyone. There’s a pay back to traditional media from the blogosphere and news aggregators – and vice versa.

Introducing widespread charging across all titles and all content as espoused by Murdoch will destroy this delicate news eco balance.  A sensitive and sophisticated approach is necessary – not the rampage of a desperate dinosaur.

Follow me on Twitter @simonheath