Freesheets

Free newspapers - whoever would have thought such a thing.  I remember going to a seminar in the early 90s where someone suggested companies had to give away free content to stay competitive in the web-enabled world. I reckon newspapers have had to give away more than most, given that the Guardian (one of my favourites) loses goodness knows how much every week.  In actual fact, I don't know why anyone who is themselves web-enabled (i.e. has easy access to the web) would want to buy a newspaper anyway - what's the point of getting your hands dirty?  Some, like The Times have a free area and a 'pay-wall' behind which lies the in-depth 'expensive' articles, although I haven't tested this so it might be just as bad...which brings me onto the BBC.  Because of the all-encompassing nature of 'media' nowadays, the BBC has naturally strayed into web broadcasting in line with all other media outlets, and this, more than any other medium, conflicts with competitors.  Personally, I like the idea of a funded, independent BBC even if it is in direct competition with commercial media companies like News International.  It's always been like this anyway - ITN was up against it almost from day 1 of the TV days, so NI's biggest problem should not be the BBC, but it's own commercial rivals jostling for space in the big web wired world.  The Express has recently bought Channel 5 - not a major issue, but shows that traditional newspaper companies have to diversify or they will definitely die.  I'm convinced that newspapers will soon only exist in print form for niche markets or be free, full of adverts in both cases.
Getting back to News International, I notice that it draws a lot of it's news items (On Sky News) from American news agencies.  I guess they share the info with Fox News, and probably helps them with US advertisers in the on-line Sky News (which is the only one I access).  I notice the same with Guardian Online which has ticker-tape headlines with more than a fair share of breaking news stories from the US, so I guess the strategy is to make it more appealing to the US audience.  Either that, or 'breaking news' is limited in the UK.   Mind you, I do think that the 'Breaking News' titel isover used, and often stays with a story for quite some time, well after it has 'broken'.  I wonder what rules they use to tag a story as Breaking News (BN from now on) - when all new stories are BN.

Ah well, as long as I can get access to UK news somewhere I'm not too bothered.  ..as long as it's free!