Having given away the store on their websites, newspapers are talking about going back behind a pay wall.  It didn’t work before, so, of course, it will work this time.

Few seem to be discussing the broader picture of how the internet has changed the way people use newspapers.  It’s more than simply substituting electronic delivery for the carrier throwing the paper through your rose bushes.

Except for a handful of news and political junkies, consumers of print newspapers read no more than one or two papers a day.  So far, nearly all pay models seem to assume that internet users follow this same pattern.  They just want their daily New York Times or Washington Post fix, and now they get it for free without paying that annoying subscription fee.  Force them to pony up and they will.  Well some will, but many won’t because of a changed usage pattern.

Henry Ford did more than build lots of cheap cars for people.  He freed them from having to go downtown on the trolley company’s schedule.  The internet frees me from having to rely on one or two newspapers, regardless of how good they may be.  I can read a columnist I like in the L.A. Times, catch an editorial cartoon in another paper and a backgrounder on energy policy in a third. I’ll be happy to pay a reasonable rate for the news and features I read, as long as I can read them from whatever publication strikes my fancy today.  Tomorrow I might want to sample a different one.  News grazing might be a good term for it.

Maybe the club model would work.  Many of us have belonged to gyms or clubs where our membership entitles us to privileges at associated facilities in other cities.  So let’s say I subscribe for internet access to The Boston Globe, paying about what I would pay for a print subscription.  But my subscription also gives me access to the Web content of The New York Times, the Journal-Constitution from Atlanta, the Chicago Tribune and dozens of other papers across the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and other parts of the world who are members of a subscription co-op.

Now that I would pay for.  But I don’t want to be limited to one or two online newspapers just to avoid a hunk of dead tree being thrown through my rose bushes.  C’mon publishers, you can figure out how to do this.  BMI, ASCAP and SESAC collect fees for music rights owners from thousands of radio and TV stations and other venues, and they started long before the invention of modern computer-based accounting systems.  Find a way to shift the money around, and I’ll be happy to pay for my news nibbling.

Paul Rule is President of Marquest Media Research.

See also: Thinking Outside of The Polybag, Cynopsis Weekender, November 2005

In a typically academic Google-kinda way, Google announced a deal with owners of retro content by reminding us about the roots of the word magazine.

The word “magazine” is derived from the Arabic word “makhazin,” meaning storehouse…Today, we’re announcing an initiative to help bring more magazine archives and current magazines online, partnering with publishers to begin digitizing millions of articles

Titles include Popular Science, New York Magazine, Bulletin of Atomic Scientists and Ebony.

For those of you who are looking for inexpensive, retro-, do-it-yourself holiday ideas this might make your dreams come true.

See also: CNET, GoogleBlog

For the first six months of 2008, MonitorPlus commercial expenditures are down 10 perent across all media. The biggest losers by dollars were Spot TV (-7%), Network TV (-10%), and National Magagines (-23%). Network Cable showed a small increase at 5 percent. Spot Radio and Newspapers also took big hits, dropping 23% and 32% respectively.

GM’s Jan-July spending is down six percent with Ford and Chrysler both slashing media expenditures by  22 percent. Honda was up 13 percent and Toyota was flat.

Source: Nielsen MonitorPlus

I’m the first to admit it, my earliest memories of seeing the paparazzi in my hometown of Malibu are paradoxical at best. As a child, I used to play at the Malibu Country Mart playground – located in a central shopping area, it was definitely home to the higher-end equipment as far as local sandboxes and slides went. My dad was working at Hard Copy at the time, and he made it his policy not to accept paparazzi footage shot at that particular playground. And yet, while he was protecting his daughter’s right to play in a place unfettered by the photog’s flashbulbs, it was only because of his job as a producer on a major tabloid television show that we lived in Malibu at all.

Such is the paparazzi paradox. On the one hand, the prolific paps are reviled – and rightfully so – for the invasive and often dangerous tactics they use to get the perfect, profitable picture. On the other hand, most of the entertainment industry depends on tabloid journalism for publicity and profits. And, there is nowhere where the twain take each other on quite like in Malibu.

Just look at last weekend. Most Angelenos were escaping the record heat by hitting whatever body of water was closest. And, for many of us, that meant the beach, and specifically, the big stretch of sand and sea along the Malibu coast. But, while most people were looking to lay out and let off some steam – literally – there were clearly a contingent of paps who were not content to kick back and cool off. Sure, they were combing the sand, but not for seashells.

Instead, they went looking for yet another shot of a shirtless Matthew McConaughey soaking up the sun and surf. And, apparently, they went looking on the private beach known locally as Little Dume – a place so private that even when we used to hold high school parties there, we would still need someone with a key to get to the keg.

There’s plenty of video of what happened next, but basically, a group of local guys got fed up with the photogs, and a confrontation ensued. Footage of the whole incident, along with details of the new ordinance Malibu officials are currently drafting to deal with the increased influx of paps to these parts. You see, the thing is that when it comes to day-to-day life in Malibu, In Touch is honestly rather out of touch.

Malibu is a small suburban city, just 27 miles long, that is more oriented around families than fame. Sure, the population of almost 13,000 has more than its share of screenwriters, producers, directors, composers, musicians, actors, lighting technicians and the like. But, my immediate neighbors also include a retired cop, a number of firefighters, a teacher and a contractor. So, when a group of paparazzi jumped out of the bushes to catch Pam Anderson at her kids’ Saturday afternoon soccer game, they also managed to scare the living daylights out of my poor little brother, who happened to be playing goalie at the time. And, when Britney Spears was spotted getting frozen yogurt at the local Ben & Jerry’s, it was my frizzy, frazzled former co-worker there whose unflattering picture appeared in the background – much to her chagrin.

So, as much as my journalistic background makes me want to fight for the freedom of the press at all possible costs, there is a big part of me that wants to protect the people I love from the frenzy of flashbulbs. Sure, celebs ask for the added notoriety when they commit to their careers, and yes, we in the entertainment industry all depend on the terrible tabloids to make and maintain everyone’s fame and fortune. But, I do believe there is a line to be drawn, and I think it makes sense to draw it around actors, actresses, musicians and maybe even reality stars who are off the clock, off the carpet and (trying to stay) off the camera.

When someone is sunning on the sand, shopping at the supermarket, strolling with their kids or playing at the playground, they should get the benefit of basic human treatment and be taken off the tabloid radar. After all, how many shots of a shirtless McConaughey or a sweats-clad Pam Anderson does the American public really need to see? There must be more interesting or, dare I say it, important news going on in the greater world, right?

Yes, it’s time to draw a line. And, if a group of local guys are willing to let their beer guts be broadcast around the world as a means of literally drawing that line in the sand, then I can’t say I don’t support their intentions – if not necessarily their all-too-aggressive actions.

See also: LA Times

• 5/9, Malibu turns to Ken Starr to help get paparazzi under control
• 6/23 2nd Paparazzi Brawl in Malibu

Most of us spend a lot of time with media – watching TV, eyeballing online videos, going to movies, etc. Plus there’s the audio stuff, tunes from radio, downloads or CDs. Then we have the print delights – newspapers, mags, books. It can total double-digit hours per day for dedicated media addicts.

Yes, I’m one, too. I’m the guy you met at the meeting of MJA (Media Junkies Anonymous), the couch potato who bravely stood up and said, “My name is Paul, and I’m a media addict.”

These thoughts came this week as I noted the 25th anniversary of the release of the film “Valley Girl” and read about a study reporting that high school kids who have TVs in their rooms earn lower school grades, eat more junk food and exercise less.

Okay, class, now what difference do we see between the teens depicted in “Valley Girl” and those camped out in their bedrooms, eyes glued to the screen or with hands clinched firmly to their Wii controllers? Well, mostly, it’s that the Valley girls were out actually doing something like socially interacting with each other in a non-digital environment, even if the setting was as mundane as a suburban shopping mall.

Media content is attractive because it has interesting stories involving interesting characters doing interesting things. This applies whether it’s a movie, a TV reality show, a video game, a news story or the lyrics of a chart-topping song. I’m not aware of anyone who has produced a hit media vehicle that showed nothing but the backs of people’s heads who were watching television. We’re media junkies because media allows us to be mental hitchhikers and vicariously experience situations that would be too threatening or that we’re unable or too lazy to experience for real.

Occasionally there is a bright light. Nickelodeon has a new show called “Dance on Sunset” that actually encourages tweens to get up from their couches and dance.

Plus, there is a lot of worthwhile educational and thought-provoking content. I learn more from the National Geographic, Discovery and History channels than I ever did from most of my school textbooks. I balance this by feeding myself guilty pleasures – searching the on-demand menus for really bad low-budget movies that require no more mental effort than necessary to keep me breathing and digesting my food.

I should spend more time doing things someone might want to make a movie about and less time watching other people do things on TV, but right now I think I’ll check to see if anyone might be running a Clive Barker film festival on the tube this week. I haven’t had a good dose of Pinhead lately. My name is Paul, and I’m a media addict.