Author's Qualification and The Uncertain Future of Paywall

                  The reading for this week covers a lot of issue in relation to the topic of ‘transition from scrolls to  e-readers and contemporary events’. I notice that two of the reading deals with the procedure that must be followed by a particular author to publish his/her work at a publishing company like Pan Macmillan Australia and MIT Press. The flowchart below will explain the process in brief.

            In general, the system is appropriate and properly-designed in ensuring the quality and originality of the author’s work. Some of the compulsory information that are required from the author are education background, previous research carried out, and other preceding publications. In my point of view, this information is really important to determine whether the proposed work would be accepted or rejected.The mind map below briefly described the criteria necessary information that are required by The Mit Press(MIT Press Service Area 2001).

Figure 1- Compulsory information required by the MIT Press

         Other than that, the other interesting issue explored in the reading is the proposal of introducing paywalls to news websites. Recently, Richard Murdoch, the CEO of News Corporation reveals that the visitors to his news websites will be charged. This idea was criticised by Alan Rusbridger , the editor  of The Guardian ,a British national daily newspaper. Rusbridger argue that paywall would not bring much benefit to News Corp. It lead the company to a ‘sleepwalk of oblivion’, reduce online readership and have to compete with free news websites such as Sky Tv and BBC(Busfield, S. 2010).

Image 1-Snapshot of Newscorp Website which is the proposed paywall site by Richard Murdoch

Image 2 - Snapshot of BBC-free homepage. Note that there is  an advertisement on the top of the page.

            I am totally agreed with Rusbridger.  In my point of view, there are several drawbacks of paywall.To begin with; this would discourage the public to access news websites. In the world of digital revolution, a large number of people in developed countries access digital media in pursuit of current issues. Obviously, charging the public for information would leave them clueless about recent national and global news update. On top of that, diminishing online readership would result in withdrawal of digital advertising contract. This is a serious issue since the income from advertising make up  a fraction of the total revenue for News Corp.

          To sum up, the sector of book publishing and printing have undergo significant transformation, as well as the publishing procedure and requirements. Besides, charging the public for accessing digital mass media would bring detrimental effects to the industry.  

Reference :-

MIT Press Author Services Area 2001,accessed 18 March 2011                                  <http://mitpress.mit.edu/authors/Author-Questionnaire.pdf>

Busfield, S (2010) ‘Guardian editor hits back at paywalls’, The Guardian, accessed 18 March  2011 <http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jan/25/guardian-editor-paywalls>