Archive for April, 2010
End of a free press in Ireland?
Yesterday I was reading a very interesting article published in The Sunday Business Post.
According to this article, the days of free online news are over. Do you believe that? Publishers have been unsure about the best model for online versions of their publications. Online advertising never covered the cost of editions, so newspapers in Ireland and overseas are starting to charge for their sites. This summer The Times and The Sunday Times will start to charge to read their online articles. They won’t have their news on the Google search engine any more. They urged newspaper to “stand up” to Google and let the search site gather its own news. Others newspapers such as The Irish Times, Independent Newspapers and The Sunday Business Post, are now looking at charging for content.
I think that many could be a barrier to the internet and very few people will pay. However, if you live abroad and want to read news about your country, you might accept to pay for this. But looking at the perspective of generating revenue from online news, I think that this approach is a good solution to keep the newspapers doing well in their business. Online newspapers have high cost as much as printed newspapers. They have to pay journalists, web-designers, programmers and so on. Business is business. The Web has changed the business model for many industries. And each one will need to adapt to this digital world.
Are you interested in the country that will host two of the largest worldwide sports events?
In the next 5 years, Brazil will host two of the largest worldwide sports events:
- The Soccer World Cup 2014: Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre, Curitiba, Brasília, Cuiabá, Manaus, Fortaleza, Salvador, Recife and Natal are the cities which will be held the world cup. It’s expected to have 500 000 tourists in one month, 10% of the total Brasil receives in an entire year, in the cities which will host the events. The estimated investments are US$ 60 billions. It’s expected that the World Cup will bring new jobs, increase tourism, promote the revitalization of urban areas and ensure great investments in the country.
- The Summer Olympic Games 2016: It will be held in Rio. It will be the first time the Olympic Games will host the Latin America. The estimated investments are US$ 20 billions.
Certainly the World Cup and The Olympic Games will boost exports, as well as investments in infrastructure. Total investments forecast, US$ 80 billion, are equivalent to 3.8% of the Brazilian GDP. Based on this, I hope Brasil will improve its economy as it happened with the countries that hosted the last events.
