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Latest research shows that more than a quarter of people have cut back on buying magazines and newspapers in the economic downturn in favour of free online content.

However, the results also reveal that this does not mean people are more open to subscription services. Just 11% said they currently pay for online media and a further 11% said they may begin a subscription in the next 12 months.

But this begs the question of why? Why would a consumer buy access to news online when they can get it free elsewhere?

Surely a precedent has been set after receiving it free for years and it’s too late to change?

Rupert Murdoch, whose global empire has made a huge financial loss, declared recently that the “free-for-all in online news has ended” and has pledged to shake up the newspaper industry by introducing charges for access to all his news websites.

I don’t doubt Murdoch’s ability to pave new ways, but is this really the best way of increasing revenue?

With the amount of blogs and social networking sites out there, far fewer people rely on traditional media for their latest news fix. That isn’t to say a paid for model won’t work for specialist media, where there’s a niche audience, but mainstream news is readily available, whenever we want it.

But many believe it’s purely down to behavioural change. As David Elms, media partner at KPMG, the company behind the research, says: “Monetising online content is the holy grail of the media sector. The challenge is changing the mindset of a consumer population that is used to accessing free online content.”

Steve Brill, co-founder of Journalism Online, which promises to help news outlets charge for content, says: “People have been exchanging cash for newspapers and magazines for decades - they just need to get into the habit of doing so online.”

But Vivian Schiller, president and CEO of non-profit NPR, who believes in making pay optional, said: “To think that we are so smart that we can retrain the audience, that’s an awfully elitist, condescending, and frankly old perspective.”

Instead of charging for subscriptions, perhaps newspapers should look at what they’re offering and provide the best online content to attract lucrative advertisers?

There has been a lot written about The London Evening Standard recently (full history on followthemedia), so here’s a more light-hearted look at the pros and cons of the newspaper going free. Through Londoner’s eyes with PR glasses if you wish.

Pro

You can pick up both the Evening Standard and London Lite and play the game ‘spot the difference’ with the main news stories. Don’t look at the business page though – there are none!

Con

After a short three-week piece, two bright jackets are yet again vying for sidewalk inches and obstructing our journey home. 

Pro

They probably won’t be there for long. The word on the street is now that thelondonpaper is gone Lite will soon follow and the Evening Standard will rule London’s streets once again (although from another perspective that’s probably a con). 

Con

An unsightly mess of 600,000 more newspapers littering London’s streets, trains, buses and the tube. 

Pro

Watching a certain type of person staring at the ceiling on the tube as they will not read their evening paper now that it’s devalued and stuffed in your face every evening like a freesheet.  

Con

The spy who loves media now decides what we read. 

Pro

His team has had the great idea to feature anecdotes on the 2^nd page to celebrate the paper going free: “Public figures reveal the free things in life they love the most. Gordon Brown says, the NHS…” 

The Evening Standard is the first quality newspaper to go free, possibly suicide for an already ailing paper or perhaps a very smart move into a new territory which others will follow, and if they do, is this a pro or a con for the PR industry? 

I recently came across Jezebel, a blog which, as the raunchy name suggests, is aimed at women and focuses on celebrity, sex and fashion, ‘without airbrushing’. 

My first thought was – hmm, another feminist website. Turns out it’s much more than that. Churned out by Gawker Media since 2007, it’s clocking up on average nearly 1 million visits per day and has an impressive following on social networking sites and other blogs. Yesterday I noticed a twitter conversation about an intern position at the site, which went something like this, “Dear Jezebel, I will sell you my soul for an internship.” 

Why all the hype? I decided to monitor the blog to find out and have to say I’ve been very impressed. Most blogs aimed specifically at women have never appealed to me as they seem to focus on recipes or similar, not particularly exciting subjects. Jezebel, on the other hand, with a fiercely direct and analytical attitude, takes on not only women’s mags, but also newspapers (Daily Fail, as they call it, being one of the most favourite whipping boys) and offers tens of witty articles every day on pretty much every subject a modern woman might be interested in. How about: Daily Mail Finds Rare Childless Woman Who Is Not Miserable? 

The blog positions itself as the rebel, sick of the lies perpetuated by the women’s media, from airbrushing and shallow predictable celebrity interviews, to must-have products that journalist’s themselves don’t believe in.  

For this reason, from a PR perspective, however, Jezebel is almost an impossible win – they simply won’t read PR pitches and seem to have a grudge against the PR industry as such. Having said that, if you come up with a spectacular idea, perfect for the audience, I think you can chance it. Also, their FAQ section offers a very interesting insight into how a professional blog is run. 

A more general realisation though is that in today’s world where citizen journalism is on the rise, getting your news story printed is not the end of the story. Increasingly, it is then taken apart and analysed by ever more powerful and media savvy groups and blogs all over the world.  

All in all, Jezebel is a much-needed breath of fresh air in the tired space of women’s websites and magazines, which at the moment still follow the same traditional format – Wednesday’s launch of the Stylist is a prime example.  

“Black goes with everything and you probably don’t need any more assistance going broke!” shout Jezebel’s editors in unison. And the reason Jezebel is on the rise with an army of active commentators, whilst many women’s magazines are dying out – passion and edginess!   

The Internet will score a first when England takes to the pitch against Ukraine in the World Cup qualifier next weekend.  It will be the first time ever that a a football match of this import has been broadcast live to fans via the web rather than on a TV channel.

The situation has arisen because the broadcast rights had been picked up by failed sports channel Setanta.  Following the collapse of the broadcaster, fans will watch this weekend’s World Cup clash on their computers.  Media group Perform will  stream the footage on a pay-per-view basis at www.ukrainevengland.com at a cost of £4.99.

This is a critical moment for television as a medium.  What is demonstrates is that TV is no longer platform specific, or more simply you don’t need a TV to watch TV anymore.  In fact the hundreds of pubs up and down the country who usually pack the bar for this type of fixture must be considering wiring up the PC to the big screen, and if not next weekend then they surely will as this trend continues.   What is really significant is that this is a sporting ‘event’.  Live events were supposed to be the saviour of broadcast TV and the Saturday night schedule reflects this.  If live TV can find a home on the net then how long before content follows advertising spend and goes digital? 

On Saturday BBC News invited Staniforth managing director and PR Media Blog contributor, Rob Brown to comment on how and why the Prime Minister’s wife, Sarah Brown, has soared to the height of Twitter followers, overtaking even Stephen Fry.

Here’s what he had to say…

Compared to the real world of magazines, has ITV’s new look This Morning gone from Take a Break to the dizzy heights of Cosmo?

With new co-host Holly Willoughby replacing Fern Britton, the 28-year old ex-model brings a younger element to the show, and dare we say a touch more glamour.

But what will the typical viewer make of such a change in presenter? Both Fern Britton and her predecessor Judy Finnegan were consummate broadcasters. Holly, on the other hand, has already been described as a “talkative airhead.”

But this is daytime TV after all and as a new mum to three-month old Harry, Holly is no stranger to this audience.

What’s more, we’re in a recession with 2.43 million of the population out of work, nearly one million of which are under 25. Not only does this change the viewer profile, it also creates a greater need for escapism and perhaps Holly, who incidentally came out top in a recent poll of who women should most look like in order to land a good job, is just the tonic.

Now in its 21^st series, it’s perhaps time the flagship daytime show had a revamp. With new title sequence and music, the first fundamental change to the opening sequences since it moved to London in 1996, and the likes of Peter Andre signed as the new showbiz reporter, one can’t see why This Morning won’t remain the all time favourite “coffee morning” telly.

The BBC’s move to Salford’s Media City will “reinvent the BBC for the north” and be an opportunity for regional, creative businesses to work hand-in-hand with the organisation.

This was the unequivocal message from two of the most senior members of the corporation’s Marketing, Communications and Audiences Organisation (MC&A) at BBC Manchester last night.

Sharon Baylay, BBC executive board member with responsibility for MC&A  said: “Brands attract brands and we will be building Manchester and Salford as destinations for the creative industries, especially the digital and online sector which are so integrated with what the BBC is doing moving forward.”

The MC&A’s Jacky Brandreth, director of brand and planning, added: “The vision for the BBC is connecting better with audiences across the north and having creative talent living and breathing in the region.”

It was, undoubtedly, a promising sign for the audience of north west agencies and media companies that the BBC is taking its relationship with local business seriously enough to field such senior executives for a face-to-face Q&A session.

And among the 30 staff MC&A North will employ in the region, more than 20 of those will be newly-created positions.

The BBC’s Media City operation will host children’s programming, entertainment, FiveLive, BBC Sport, alongside regional and local programmes, among others. Even the Match of the Day studio will be in spitting distance of Manchester United’s Old Trafford stadium.

Brandreth said: “This is about opening up the conversation and creating an ongoing dialogue with people and organisations here.”

A famous global PR company used to give clients three pieces of advice on press conferences…”don’t do them, don’t do them and don’t do them”.  They are hard to get right, open to risk and in the digital age what is the point of a press conference? Well, it is the same as it always was - to fuel the buzz.  I don’t think anyone today does it better than Apple.In fact Apple, which has a conference scheduled for tomorrow, 9 September, has achieved what most companies can only dream of, a flood of coverage before they have announced a thing.  They can do this because they have great products and a charismatic head honcho in Steve Jobs.  They also succeed in creating drama and intrigue.  So what is the buzz about this time?  There is so much speculation that it hurts but here is a quick summary of the hum on the wires:

• Will Steve Jobs host?  He is recovering from a liver transplant but back at work. Will tech’s greatest showman be hosting the show?
• Is the much talked about tablet ready to roll? The keyboard free netbook, the love child of the iphone and the macbook is hotly tipped.
• The Beatles are going on iTunes.  Spotify has seized all the headlines lately and Apple must be keen to get its download service back in the spotlight.
• Time for a new Touch?  The iPod touch is set for a facelift but it has the capacity to be big news.  If as is rumored there is a microphone on board plus an app for VOIP phone calls the big phone operators might finally start to flinch in the face of web based calls.

Whatever is waiting in the wings one thing is certain; the press conference is a core part of the Apple PR strategy and it will be rewarded with a media deluge.

If you’ve found PR Media Blog, then I assume you have an interest in media today and media tomorrow.

That being so, the BBC’s latest World of Business podcast, hosted by Peter Day, gives a fascinating insight into how the media landscape is changing.

Experts he calls upon include the Telegraph’s digital editor, Edward Roussel, media commentator, Mathew Horsman, and TV producer, Peter Bazalgette.

As the The Guardian’s Emily Bell put it in a tweet last night…

Around the middle of the morning the words Sir, Bobby, Robson and RIP started to trend on twitter.  It seemed that once again the social web had broken the news of the sad demise of a celebrity.  There have been several instances where this happened, a phenomenon first identified by this blog in October of last year, with the most notable occurrence being with the recent departure of Michael Jackson.

An analysis seemed to confirm that twitter was first to the news if only by a few minutes. At 10.18am (BST) @RobertMNHarvey was the first to tweet ‘RIP Bobby Robson’.  The Yorkshire Evening Press website was hot on his heels with an article timed at 10.22am, the first of the so-called conventional media to publish the story.  Four minutes later the news was on Bobby Robson’s Wikipedia entry but there was still nothing on Google News.    

I contacted the author of the twitter scoop.  Was he a hospital worker, a friend of the family, a football agent with inside knowledge perhaps? No, he had seen the story on the TV, Sky Sports News to be exact.  The crowd are are on the twits and they think it’s all over.  If you think it is time to blow the whistle on conventional news media, think again.