NVDL: South Africa is a tough one. Traditionally print has done far, far better than online. That may be set to change in 2009 with the connection of the SEACOM cable. It may seem like a foregone conclusion, except for the caveat of the RECESSION. In economically tough times, it is far easier to print and sell (and buy and read) a newspaper, than have to pay for all the appliances involved in the online version (on both sides - developing the IT, and subscribing to a ISP). In the end, low cost will be king.
“Why would I put anything on the Web?” asked Dan Jacobson, the publisher and owner of the newspaper. “I don’t understand how putting content on the Web would do anything but help destroy our paper. Why should we give our readers any incentive whatsoever to not look at our content along with our advertisements, a large number of which are beautiful and cheap full-page ads?”
Writing in The New York Observer, John Koblin pointed out that when Forbes, Portfolio and Fortune went through recent retrenchments, the Web staffs were hit the hardest. That may be just an old print reflex, but there is a rational argument to be made that the part of the apparatus that has a working business model, declining or not, should receive the resources.
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