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).