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“It’s best if you put any loose metallic items- you know, keys, change – in your bags. It makes it easier.” Such was our greeting on entering the Radio Theatre for the recording of the BBC’s The Media Show. We duly obliged, being helpful licence payers. I can’t imagine how hard it would have been if we hadn’t complied, as after loading all my keys and collection of other offensive weaponry into my bag we walked around the corner and discovered a bored security guard. I gestured with my bag towards the waiting x-ray machine, but the guard shook his head and directed me through the metal detector. I tucked my backpack under my arm, grimaced and marched through the silver arch. Surprisingly the alarm went off, most likely due to my bag and it’s miscellaneous metal content. Rambo simply waved me on. We headed straight for the bar where we were given beer in, somewhat ironically, plastic bottles. Thankfully we could take them into the recording, but only if we didn’t take the metal tops. Oh well, at least I still had my keys…

Alan! Alan! Alan! Alan!... Alan! Alan! Ala...

The show we were audience to was dubbed ‘Behind the Pay Wall’, and was a debate between Alan Rusbridger and John Witherow, the editors of the Guardian and the Sunday Times respectively. The idea was to discuss the two opposed models for online news content, the Guardian is opting to continue it’s free online service, whilst the Times is planning to charge readers for it’s content. A number of interesting points were raised in the exchange, such as people being prepared to pay for newspaper Apps on the iPhone and iPad, yet reacted against paying online for news. With regards to this point I feel I need to say that the iPhone market is largely made up of reasonably affluent people, many of whom are probably mid-level business/design types. This market probably wouldn’t think twice about spending a few quid for a nice functional App to show off with. That said, the iPhone has generally always been a platform that has required it’s users to pay for the best content. The Internet has not. The other thing that is worth mentioning is that since the iPhone’s release it has sold roughly 41 million units. Alan mentioned that the Guardian had sold around 120,000 Apps. He also stated that the Guardian’s website had around 37 million unique hits a month. When you compare those figures the number of Apps sold is really not that impressive. In fact it is more reminiscent of the number of readers that the New York Times had when it tried charging it’s readers to access content online (227,000), an experiment it quickly dropped in 2007.

Gophers never talk to this guy.

Interestingly the New York Times is considering charging again for it’s website, but using a metered system where readers get a certain amount of access before being notified that they have to pay. I believe the idea is to not lock out users who have been referred to the site through services such as Twitter. A major downside to the Pay Wall system as far as Alan was concerned. John wasn’t so nearly so bothered, wishing instead to build up a core base of loyal readership.

Both parties were willing to admit that the iPad was a game changer, and if it sells well (which current figures suggest it will) could spell the end for the printed newspaper, but the ultimate conclusion to the debate was that they really don’t know what is going to happen in the coming years. The two models are in fact just two sides of an experiment to see how best to save our ailing journalism industry, which is sorely in need of being brought into the 21st Century.

A very thought provoking experiment too, and one you should check out. I could sit here and write up who said what and what have you, or you could click the image below and have a listen for yourself. You’ll be pleased to hear that the question I asked has been edited out. Probably because, after sitting in relative silence for fifty minutes, when the microphone was passed to me I had a throat drier that a camel’s elbow and promptly coughed and choked loudly into it.

Oh, and it was a stupid question.

John did his best to ignore the Radio 4 logo buzzing in his face