Letter to Greedy Murdoch

Dear,

Mr Rupert Murdoch

Recently it has risen to my attention from some research I have conducted, that you’re considering to start charging for your online news content. Firstly before I continue I want to state how disappointed I was when I found this to be true. I admire the work you have done and support you abundantly from a business perspective such as by building yourself a successful empire.

As a young adult in this society I can understand many people my age don’t care about news but when they do, they turn straight to the e media platform to get the news they want. By charging for this content you will be closing the doors on educating and informing people which goes against the ethics of the internet, as it was created to inform individuals. You have such a successful empire already which earns over millions annually why would you want to make more money from us? Especially in a time of recession where consumers are finding it hard to live and are spending their money wisely, what makes you think that this move will be successful and increase your profits?

The rise of UGC has seen consumers become producers, it has also allowed citizen journalist in which now consumers/readers put all their trust into and would rather read articles produced by the "average person". I feel charging for online content will just turn readers away from your institution and they will go to UGC which is free and get all their news from there, it may not be so accurate but then yet again nor may your news articles be as you have many gatekeepers excluding vital information from the readers.

Digital revolution has played an important role in this era it has given users a better way to consume what they want, where they want all for the cost of £0. This then leads me into social networking which has become a popular way for people to interact and breaking news can be spread within seconds whereas your news content would take some time to update. This then becomes an issue on why would consumers want to pay for late news from your online platform? when social networking such as twitter provides it much faster.

In conclusion Mr Murdoch you make enough money from your print/brodcast system which I understand has decreased in the last couple of years, but it's till surviving and making you money, you should be happy with that. There is no reason to charge for anything more unless you want to see your empire crash. The new generation don’t want to spend their hard earnt money on unnecessary things, so make the right choice and keep your content free. You can still make money from E media, via advertisements; if you keep it free you will have a higher demand, which means you can charge more for your advertisements.  

Please take this letter into consideration and make the wise decision.

You’re sincerely,

Zamaan