Richard BF

Looks like the SMH (Sydney Morning Herald) has caught a bout of New York Times disease, in that they’re about to start requiring registrations. So long as it doesn’t turn into Macquarie dictionary disease, requiring payment.

A registration model will cripple techniques such as screen scraping and synthetic feeds, and after turning the SMH into a great global newspaper, who seem to understand the internet and related business models, it would be a shame to see them throw all that away without a good reason. In our time, there will always be a competitor either cheaper, easier or both, so until they explain why, it doesn’t really make any sense. We’ll wait and see.