The CEO of Digg, Jay Adelson, has been speaking about the contentious online news debate and whether or not news on the web should be free.
Taking the complete opposite stance of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, Adelson believes that consumers shouldn't have to purchase news online but somebody in the end will have to pay.
Speaking to Fox News, which is owned by Murdoch, Adelson said: "Don't expect the consumer to necessarily pay for news. I agree that someone has to pay for it – completely agree. But I think news aggregators, frankly companies like Digg, have to include a piece of that. If it costs money to produce that, where are you going to source it from?"
I know the users
Explaining his idea of how an ad-supported system may work, Adelson says that instead of news aggregators being penalised for hosting other people's content, they should garner a share of advertising revenue: "Coming up with ways like this ad system may be a good way to share revenue.
"If I can help monetise because I know those users so well – frankly better than the newspapers know themselves – if I know those users so well, then maybe I can help target ads and make an advertising model work. That's what I'm hoping for. I don't think though that my mom, grandma, people that I know and work with, expect to pay for news anymore."
Via The Telegraph
