Andrew Nimick - Technology consultant Andrew is an independent technology consultant whose focus is what technology can do for business and finding the best tools for the job.

A new year, a new decade. The web is awash with discussions about what were the technological highs and lows, ‘where are we going next?' and other pundit driven ‘blah'. It is then picked up and repeated parrot fashion by other "pundits".

I read a blog post this morning that was a quick overview of Google's new Nexus phone. It told me nothing about the phone which was not on Google's website and was written by someone who has not seen (and will not for the foreseeable future) the phone.
That is one of the issues with online, community created content, it's too easy to just recreate news and pretend you are a journalist. The trouble is too many journalists are doing similar work. This will be a year, and a decade when the web's underpinnings will change. They have too. Ad revenue is dropping, online publishers are getting less back and this has caused some to take a different approach to Google. Basically they want their content back.
And it has been content which has been suffering. It's a long time since I bought a newspaper, most of my news comes from online, but I still like specialist magazines and local papers when traveling.
Why do I not buy newspapers? Simple, too much content which does not interest me. But I do enjoy sitting down with a cup of coffee and reading the news. My news. The news I want to read. I actually have quite eclectic choices in regard to subjects.

At present the major publishers (most are old press) take the view that they are still creating a news publication and as such their initial charging plans reflect this. Sorry, that does not interest me. But a few are starting to get the idea, different pricing, brief summaries for free, charge for in-depth analysis and the bells and whistles, create great value content. Then provide the news and let people choose what, how and when to digest it. Over the next few months we will see trials of systems and new models will appear. The news will become personal allowing advertisers greater targeting of their niche prospects and there will be a rise in niche publications which seek to provide a more personal and specialist interest output.
These will be more and more provided on a subscription basis, basically glossy magus online with the interactive and multimedia experiences we have come to expect. National Business Review is a case in point. When it went behind a paywall (a new term for subscription) there where lots of detractors. Yet it seems to be working, because they provide a useful service which people will pay something for as it has value for them.
We may not like the idea of paying for content but it will be an increasing occurrence. But we consumers will expect great value for the price – it's a big pond and will be competitive.

The obstacles which publishers face are partly perception, the fact that we are in effect being asked to pay twice. Once for our data and then again for our content. We pay once for a paper, once for cable or satellite (except premium) and radio is free (though mostly brain dead). So the only way to convince us that we should pay twice is with great content which we value, or great experience. For me that would probably mean no ads.