Paul Stenhouse: US Couple's blocked from suing Uber after using Uber Eats, CNN begins rolling out a paywall

A couple has been blocked from suing Uber for a car crash because they used Uber Eats  

When you use Uber Eats you agree to a new set of Terms which state that you must use private arbitration to settle matters, rather than going to court. So, when the NJ couple got into a bad crash while in an Uber ride, a court says the Uber Eats clauses applied. They say they never recalled seeing that box, and also say their daughter used the Uber Eats account to order a pizza. The court said the mother had given her daughter the authority to sign the agreement when she handed over her phone.   

Disney has done the same thing recently – initially arguing that a wrongful-death lawsuit because of an allergy at a theme park restaurant should be thrown out of court because of a Disney+ agreement the person had.  

What does that mean when you sign up for a fast food app? Or use a business' website to perform services?  
It’s a good reminder that the fine print is important.

CNN, the US's largest news website, started rolling out its paywall  

CNN's CEO was instrumental in rolling out the New York Times paywall - which is one of the most successful in the industry. Just like the NYT, only the most heavy users will initially be prompted to pay $3.99 a month for access. Those who just browse a few articles won't see any changes yet.

One of CNN's Anchors said in an interview there were 300 people at each convention - so covering those large scale events isn't cheap! They need to develop new digital revenue streams that can offset declines in legacy TV. 

CNN reached 117 million unique visitors in August across its website and apps. Its TV audiences' median age is 67 years old. The Times has roughly 10 million digital subscribers.     

 

LISTEN ABOVE 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Tame podcast
from NEWSTALKSTB.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Twenty two minutes to eleven non news talks. He'd be
you with Jack Tame. So in the United States, America's
biggest news website, CNN's website has just started rolling out
its paywall textbot. Paul Stenhouse is here with the details.
Gout of Paul.

Speaker 3 (00:29):
Yeah, this has been I guess a long time coming, actually, Jack,
because we've been seeing CNN's viewership on TV fall and
fall and fall over the years. And the big question
is how do you pay for such an expansive news operation,
because when they go to something this is a crazy start, right,

(00:50):
want to see an The anchors said in an interview
that when they went to each of the Republican National
Conventions and the Democratic National Convention, CNN sent three hundred people.
Three hundred people, Now that's just one event. Think of
all of the news events going on in the United
States and around the world. And they used to do

(01:10):
it by obviously these massive TV ratings and getting all
these big fees from all the cable providers and that
type of thing. It's gone away, and so CNN has
been grappling with what do you do? They aren't getting
enough money from advertising on their news website, and so
now they've started rolling out a paywall. We've assumed this
is coming why because CNN CEO is a new guy

(01:33):
who came from a place called The New York Times,
where he rolled out a paywall via and basically it's
become the envy of the news industry over here. They've
got ten million digital subscribers who are basically paying for
the Times journalism. CNN currently has one hundred and seventeen
million unique viewers each month on their digital platforms, so

(01:57):
they will really be hoping they can try to convert
as many of those as they can to fuel their
whole operation. The moment, they're not doing it for everybody.
They're rolling it out in a very slow, slow way,
just like The Times did, actually targeting the most heavy
users of scene in dot com at the moment, only
in the United States, and they're asking them to pay

(02:19):
four bucks a month for access. Right, Okay, they're starting,
that's their starting.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
Hmmm, interesting that they've decided to do it now, right,
And I get it, making news, especially video news, is
super super expensive, but how what's your sense as a
news junkie and a tech junkie. Do you reckon this
is going to work?

Speaker 3 (02:40):
I mean, they have to do something right. It worked
for The Times, but it worked for the Time. Very
different though, because The Times has gone into a whole
lot of other categories that you can subscribe to.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
Cooking like yeah, recipes, yeah, wordle and all that. Games
yeah yeah yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:55):
Sceneings really tricky, and especially just before an election, they
say that they are going to give you additional perks
if you're one of these subscribers, to get access to
things that other people might not seeing in. His biggest
challenge is people turn to see him when there's big
stories going on. People stem tend to stick with The
Times day in and day out. That's the challenge. But

(03:19):
they've got the guy for the job. If he's done
it once, that's true, that's true, says maybe he can
do it again.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
It's gonna be very interesting to see how that works out. Thanks, Paul.
That's our textbook, Paul Steenhouse. Before eleven o'clock, we're in
the garden rouge climb past has the things you need
to get in the ground now, your tomatoes, your spuds
ahead of the spring and Summer ahead Right now is
nineteen to eleven.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to news talks 'd be from nine am Saturday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio