Welcome to the first episode of “The Mediatwits,” the revamped, longer form weekly audio podcast from MediaShift. The co-hosts are MediaShift’s Mark Glaser along with PaidContent founder Rafat Ali, who is working on a stealth startup. This week’s first beta show was mainly about the new metered pay wall coming to NYTimes.com and its mobile apps. Special guest Steve Outing joined the show to talk about the pay wall as well, expanding on his take on his own blog. Plus, the discussion covered Rafat’s recent trip to visit Al Jazeera in Qatar, and everyone’s take on cutting the cord to cable TV with recent moves by Facebook and Netflix.
NOTE: The original post of this podcast had a problematic audio mix, so that has been replaced with this audio that includes the guests and replaces the dead air time.
Subscribe to the podcast here
Follow @TheMediatwits on Twitter here
Intro and outro music by 3 Feet Up; mid-podcast music by Autumn Eyes via Mevio’s Music Alley.
Here are some highlighted topics from the show:
New York Times pay wall
2:00: Rafat’s first take on the NY Times metered pay wall
4:05: Rafat on the echoes of early paid content strategies that birthed the PaidContent site
6:45: Steve Outing thinks the pay wall price is way too high
9:00: Mark on the various work-arounds people have used to get NY Times free
10:40: Steve, Rafat and Mark don’t get any print newspapers delivered
12:50: Rafat would consider getting Sunday print NY Times, but donate it to someone
15:40: Steve upset about barriers so less people see NY Times content
Rafat visits Al Jazeera in Qatar
19:00: Rafat describes his recent visit
25:30: Revolution in Qatar?
28:40: Rafat describes young revolutionary hipsters
29:50: Al Jazeera director says they take sides for oppressed people
Update on cutting the cable cord
31:30: Facebook streams movies; Netflix has original TV show
32:30: Just confirmed that “House of Cards” show will be on Netflix first
33:30: Rafat has cut the cord
34:20: Mark hasn’t cut the cord yet
35:20: Steve talks about Zediva.com service to watch streaming DVDs legally
More Reading
How Much Revenue Can The New York Times Paywall Generate? at PaidContent
NY Times’ New Pay Model: They Blew It! at SteveOuting.com
The New York Times’ New Pay Wall Series at Nieman Lab
Paying for The Times at SXSW by David Carr, NY Times
INSIDE AL JAZEERA: The Hottest News Network On The Planet at Business Insider
Facebook to Stream Preseason MLB Games for Free at Time’s Techland
Done Deal: Netflix To Develop Original TV Show, House Of Cards at PaidContent
Be sure to vote in the MediaShift poll about the New York Times’ pay wall:
Mark Glaser is executive editor of MediaShift and Idea Lab. He also writes the bi-weekly OPA Intelligence Report email newsletter for the Online Publishers Association. He lives in San Francisco with his son Julian. You can follow him on Twitter @mediatwit.