Tablet computers such as the iPad may allow the news industry a “re-set” and to start charging for content after years of giving it away for free, News Corp. chief digital officer Jon Miller said Friday,
He added that it was too early to make any judgements about the experiment of News Corp.’s The Times with a paid website but charging online readers was “an idea whose time has come,” according to an “AFP” report (http://macosg.me/2/l9).
“A year ago, we were pretty out front with the idea that content has value,” Miller told an audience of top technology and media executives at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference in Aspen, Colorado. Now, “it’s accepted at a variety of levels. It’s more about how it gets done.”
Miller said tablet computers such as the iPad offer opportunities for news organizations to develop paid applications.
“You see apps being consumed that are paid-for apps,” he said. “I think we’re seeing a fundamental shift in where content is consumed and it’s on to these kinds of devices,” he said. “These tablets are heavy media consumption devices, much more than the web by itself and even smartphones.”
