These people are not investing in journalism. They are feeding off the hard-earned efforts and investments of others. And their almost china wholesale misappropriation of our stories is not “fair use.” To be impolite, it’s theft.

Right now content creators bear all the costs, while aggregators enjoy many of the benefits. In the long term, this is untenable. We are open to different pay models. But the principle is clear: To paraphrase a famous economist, there’s no such thing as a free news story, and we are going to ensure that we get a fair but modest price for the value we provide.

Finally, a few words about government. In the last two or three decades, we have seen the emergence of new platforms and opportunities that no one could have predicted—from social networking sites and iPhones and BlackBerries, to Internet sites for newspapers, radio and television. And we are only at the beginning.

The government has a role here. Unfortunately, too many of the mechanisms government uses to regulate the news and information business in this new century are based on 20th-century assumptions and business models. If we are really concerned about the survival of newspapers and other journalistic enterprises, the best thing government can do is to get rid of the arbitrary and contradictory regulations that actually prevent people from investing in these businesses.

One example of outdated thinking is the FCC’s cross-ownership rule that prevents people from owning, say, a television station and a newspaper in the same market. Many of these rules were written when competition was limited because of the huge up-front costs. If you are a newspaper today, your competition is not necessarily the TV station in the same city. It can be a Web site on the other side of the world, or even an icon on someone’s cell phones.

The key is to give plenty of notice. Make calls or send e-mails alerting your clients that you’ll be on vacation (and provide the specific dates) a few weeks in advance. That way, they can ask you questions, get updates on projects, buy services or schedule appointments before you leave. Provide contact information of staff who will be handling operations in your absence, or a cell phone number where you can reached in case of emergency.

Tags : cell phones
Categories : china wholesale