5 ms·
One con of the pay per article is that it siphons money into the money making kinds of stories. The sports and celebrity pages can do a lot of funding for the s
by DontGiveTwoFlux 8y ago
One con of the pay per article is that it siphons money into the money making kinds of stories. The sports and celebrity pages can do a lot of funding for the slow grind investigations that are important for holding those in power accountable.
It’s not like an a la carte model couldn’t also fund profitless journalism, but I think it might push things even more in that direction.
I think they do understand what people want, but they have a healthy, eat your vegetables kind of take on things too.
- un-devmox 8y agoThere's no reason why a publication can't charge more for an in-depth piece. I'd gladly pay far more for a comprehensive exposé.
- matmann2001 8y agoHow will you know it's a comprehensive exposé? How will you evaluate whether an article is going to be worth the price?
- un-devmox 8y ago> How will you know it's a comprehensive exposé? How about before I purchase there's an excerpt and the number of words that lay ahead? I mean, it couldn't be that hard to distinguish comprehensive articles vs the norm. > How will you evaluate whether an article is going to be worth the price? I wouldn't know. And if it wasn't worth it, I probably wouldn't purchase a future piece from the same reporter. That said, there could be a review system. (Just brainstorming here)
- vorpalhex 8y agoThis model already exists with those damned "click here to continue reading buttons". Just charge me a few pennies when I click that button and we're good. Give me a little browser based wallet that I can re-up with my "news" budget on a regular basis and I'm a happy paying customer. Charge me $30/month to read your site at all (bloomberg) and you're never making a cent off of me again.
- adrianN 8y agoThe same way you used to evaluate the dead tree news. You trust the brand and its editors.
- ripdog 8y agoBlendle offers automated instant refunds. If the article is bad, refund it.
- nojvek 8y agoI think the new economy, some CEOs and CFOs will make terrible decisions, and lose their market share to those who provide the right price for the value, or understand what the value even is.
- jonnycomputer 8y agoor just read the other news paper's summary of it after an hour or two.
- reitanqild 8y agoActually I am more likely to pay for investigations than for gossip.
- majewsky 8y agoWe're the minority.
- reitanqild 8y agoI would think we would be the majority here though? Edit: also, and this goes to the person upthread, even if mainstream media goes for gossip I'd still think we should make up a nice niche?
- bscphil 8y agoI don't think this is right. Even if a site goes for a subscription model, it will still be obvious which pages people click the most on, and so they will have a strong incentive to increase sports and celebrity reporting to bolster their subscriber count. The exact same incentives are there with pay-by-page. You still have to charge enough for your writers to eat, and you have the exact same incentive to tell them to write clickbait.
- FlyingAvatar 8y agoWhen I am paying by the article, I personally am much less likely to pay to see garbage stories.