Viktar Marcinovich: The idea of a paid content is an absolute utopia

Basing on the closure of the “Observer” newspaper and the investors’ search for the sports edition “Pressball” one cannot judge about the dying out of all the published media business in Belarus.

This opinion was shared to the EuroBelarus Information Service by an associate editor-in-chief of “BelGazeta” Viktar Marcinovich.

“I think that “Pressball” inquiry is connected with the reconfiguration, a desire to find some extra-resources for more effective launch of an Internet project”, - said the interlocutor.

According to him, the reasons for the closure of newspapers in the West and in Belarus are nonetheless different. It can be traced by example of the Belgium edition Le Soir.

“Le Soir newspaper was closed down not for the same reasons why the “Observer” newspaper was. Because in that case there is only objective crisis caused by the Internet. And there we have crisis of the advertising market, economic crisis in the country, there are paper costs that have risen dramatically. It appears that we have double crisis, - noted the well-known Belarusan journalist. – The fact that in this double crisis we continue extricating ourselves from it testifies to the fact that everyone who remains in the market make goods of high quality and goods that are in demand”.

Viktar Marcinovich believes that the published media are not under the threat of complete dying out, “they are just very strongly transformed under the influence of the electronic media”.

“And this is what we witness now. I’m ceasing to understand why people nowadays should buy a daily paper and read news in the paper? News comes much quicker from the Internet”, - noted the interlocutor.

On the other hand, papers, as rather slow media, have more time to consult the experts on urgent issues in order to write a deeper text. “With a lapse of time analytical genres will become a prerogative of the paper, while news genre – a prerogative of the Internet. Since the majority of the citizens need quick information, they abandon the paper variant. But besides philistines, there also exists a big group of intelligent people, to whom Internet will not be enough. That is why now I wouldn’t raise an alarm”, - summoned the expert.

There is no doubt that it will be rather difficult for the traditional published media to adapt to the working conditions in the Internet, as there “other laws are working, up to the fact that the reader is socially different, he reacts in other way, he expects other communication channels”.

Though Viktar Marcinovich doesn’t see “explicit obstacles against the published media becoming the participants of the Internet section”.

In the journalist’s judgment, “Pressball”, for instance, has a wonderful chance to succeed in the online-format. “They have a wonderful website and quite big perspectives. That is why I hope that the difficulties with the investments our colleagues are facing is some temporary step they will remember with a smile in 10 years”, - said the interlocutor.

He believes that in the future it will be possible to earn money in the Internet with the free content only: “The idea of the paid content is an absolute utopia. Everyone seems to give it up. All editions that adhere to the paid subscription are gradually going downwards. And de facto the goal consists in securing the highest possible amount of clicks with the free content and by this attracting an advertiser”.

Nevertheless, nowadays the possibility to make money on information is seriously limited by the small market size of bynet. “At the moment advertisers are slightly confused. As they find themselves in the same extremely dynamically changing conditions as the market players do. We do not fully understand how everything is changing, all the more so the market”, - Viktar Marcinovich described the situation.

He believes that we need to wait for a year or two –until “the final market configuration on both circulation, and popularity, and niche as well as on everything else will emerge”.

“It is necessary to appear before the audience for any business. Obviously, now marketers together with the sociologists are calculating which channels are the best for appearing before the audience. I think that it won’t take long to wait. As with the big city billboards and ads on TV no one among the sane people actually watches, one cannot appear before the audience now”, - the journalist said.