I’m Sure It Is Only a Coincidence, But…
Yesterday – in a widely circulated news story – Rupert Murdoch, who owns one of the few U.S. newspapers that makes people pay to read its news on the Web, said more papers will have to start doing the same to survive.
Today, the JTA sends out an email titled “What does this service mean to you?” and asking newsletter readers to pay $50. to become a member.
Is this a prelude to the JTA following the practice of other publications including The Baltimore Jewish Times and The Jewish Advocate? Will some content be available only to paid subscribers?
By the way, according to the JTA,
“Without a strong JTA, the storytelling will be left to bloggers, twitters, and non-professionals. Is this the best way for our future Jewish stories to be told and recorded?”
Considering that the JTA has professional staff who blog and twitter, both for the JTA and privately, and considering all the communal professionals who also engage in the use of new media, one wonders what the JTA is even thinking with such a comment.
update: see out further post on the JTA’s ill-advised fundraising soliciation, The Power of Blogs (Bloggers).
Odd, my letter had different text.
It read “JTA delivers the information you need and, more importantly, the in-depth analysis. Behind our stories stands a superior team of professional journalists spanning the globe, who make sense of the news noise, bloggers, government officials and community leaders.”
Here’s the letter; emphasis is JTA’s:
Storytelling is fundamental to the Jewish experience.
It is how we hand down our culture to the generations. Next week we will gather with family and friends to tell the seminal story of Jewish existence-the powerful exodus of our people.
And, storytelling is what JTA does every day. Mumbai … Gaza…Durban. Obama …Madoff … Netanyahu. Whoever it is, wherever it is – JTA tells the story, so that our community stays informed.
At this moment, JTA’s ability to tell these stories is threatened by the realities of the economic downturn. And, in the chaos of the information age in which we live, it is even harder to find the trusted voices on which we rely for independence and accuracy.
Without a strong JTA, the storytelling will be left to bloggers, twitterers, and non-professionals. Is this the best way for our future Jewish stories to be told and recorded?
I am asking you to join JTA by becoming a member of our online community. For just $50 a year-less than $1 a day-you will signal that you value the service we are providing and take responsibility for supporting it.
During the seder, one of the four children asks, “What does this service mean to you?” I am asking you to ponder that same question and join us by becoming a member.
This year IS different from all other years. Please come forward today. Allow us to know by Seder Night that with your help, our story will continue to be told.
Thanks and Happy Pesach!
Elisa Spungen Bildner
President
This is the one I received.
Dear Reader:
There is no business in the world changing faster than the news business. The speed of the Internet creates instant journalism. What JTA delivers is comprehensive, incisive journalism that is critical to each one of us as opinion leaders and as community leaders. What JTA reports today will determine our decisions tomorrow.
As a business owner, I subscribe to Bloomberg News. As a Jewish communal leader, I need to read JTA every day.
This is why I am asking you to become a member of JTA today. Your $50 membership–less than $1 per day–is vital to maintaining the standard of journalistic excellence we all rely upon.
JTA delivers the information you need and, more importantly, the in-depth analysis. Behind our stories stands a superior team of professional journalists spanning the globe, who make sense of the news noise, bloggers, government officials and community leaders.
Our heritage teaches us to ask questions. JTA is a key source in finding answers.
Thank you in advance for your support.
Happy Pesach!
Signature
Elisa Spungen Bildner
President
P.S. The Internet may be free, but news has a real cost. Practically every day there is word of another media outlet shrinking or shutting down. Please become a JTA member today and help keep the international Jewish stories coming.
I think it’s okay and fair that they ask people to pay for content. The JTA is a news wire and not a newspaper. They earn money by media who buy their articles for print editions.
Instead of criticizing them for this move, we should ask why the Jewish community newspapers in the US are not buying JTA articles, which are of very high quality and journalistic integrity. The JTA is trying to come up with a business model to help them survive. I’d pay for it, if I read their articles.
Karin Kloosterman
Official JTA response http://is.gd/qRBJ
Dan,
I appreciate your response to what has been said over the past few days on the blog-o-sphere. But, I am also quite disappointed that it came from you (regardless of your position in the JTA). The feelings that Elisa’s solicitation email brought forth deserve a formal response from her, as both the author of the email and President of JTA.
On a related note, and lost in all the various comments is that the solicitation email asks us “to join JTA by becoming a member of our online community. For just $50…”
Membership implies certain benefits not available to non-members. What exactly are the benefits of JTA membership?