I share this story on the blog with some trepidation, but it’s media news and I wouldn’t be doing my part if I didn’t.

TechDirt covered a story today on Japanese newspaper the Nikkei and how they plan to surpass pay walls to complete their protectionist plan.  The Nikkei, plans to block links that direct users to the stories on Nikkei.com.   I guess in their mind a few things are at play:

1. They feel they are strong enough as a standalone and as a result, do not need the traffic caused through links to their stories
2. They feel linking to their content should be worth something (those linking should pay), as they they probably feel that their content is unique, niche and unfounded anywhere else.

So now you understand why I am afraid to give such radical moves any play at all. Mind you, the newspaper business if far different in Japan versus Canada or the US, but in this desperate time to turn things around, publishers are trying all that they can.  I believe it is this vulnerable state that caused Rupert Murdoch’s pay wall terror to have such an affect.

Data shows that Japanese publishers may want to start looking outside of protectionist models.  A report released by Dentsu Inc. last year stated that advertising revenue fell 4.7 percent to ¥6.69 trillion in 2008, making this the first ad spend drop in five years for the Japanese market, and of course, it was traditional media that took the brunt of the hit, as spend with them dropped 12.5%

Although government in Japan has a more integral part to play in media consumption and may just save publishers, there just seems to be too many ‘if’s’ and not enough long term strategy.  Japan’s level of search traffic means to me that you would want to have your content syndicated in as many places as possible, to ensure potential readers have a clear pathway to your news portal.