Interesting that some of the newspapers are turning their online versions to subscription based versions. Do they really think they can last?
Take a look at FriendsReunited.com. This is a dynamic social networking site started in 1998. At that time, the site charged people to be on it. As other sites came on the marketplace, like Facebook, Myspace and Twitter, FriendsReunited took a back seat because it refused to abolish fees.
This past July, FriendsReunited was sold for $42 million dollars, a fraction of what it sold for in 2005 at $295 million.
If you look at the site, it is well organized and is easy to navigate. The site enables you to find people from various times in your life and helps you to reconnect. FriendsReunited also enables you to meet new people in your interest areas. There are 19 million people listed on this site. Most are from England and other European countries.
So what happened? FriendsReunited decided to offer a free service after its initial inception. I wonder if the same thing will happen with newspapers. Will they charge a fee and realize that they are losing their audience? I think so… what do you think?
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