5 ms·

I actually think the root of our 'fake news' problem is that credible sources charge for content, while crank sources don't. And credible news has always spent

by lsc 8y ago

I actually think the root of our 'fake news' problem is that credible sources charge for content, while crank sources don't. And credible news has always spent more on content creation than niche news. The cost of content creation has not fallen, while the cost of distribution has fallen dramatically. So, it's completely natural that the price difference at the consumer side between high and low quality news would have changed dramatically. The problem is that you hit a news story on the major aggregators (google news, at least, gives you a bunch of stories on the same topic from different newspapers) and you have to pay money to the more credible sources, while the completely wacky takes are often free. Personally, I'd really like it if apple (or someone similar with a history of, you know, treating users as customers) would create a news service where I give apple twenty bucks a month, and it lets me read 100 news articles from the major papers, distributing some of that revenue to the papers in question. (they could even have tiers. or an easy way for me to 'buy this article' for two fifty or whatever. Heck, the NYT could setup an easy apple pay 'buy this article for two fifty' button without more apple help than is required to make apple pay work, and I'd probably use it at least once a week.) As is, I periodically subscribe to the NYT on my kindle, but while the reading experience on the kindle is wonderful, the discovery experience is terrible. I usually read it for a while, then I cancel after realizing I haven't been using it (see the discovery complaint)

PrunJuice 8y ago
Check out Blendle https://blendle.com/ https://blendle.com/ They aren't Apple but they do the pay per article thing.
- lsc 8y ago
  I will check it out, initially, that looks like what I want.
- Paul-ish 8y ago
  Ive used blendle. I wish there was a browser extension that would detect paywalls and let me use blendle to see the article. Right now I have to open a new tab and search the article on blendles website. That adds friction that causes me to use blendle less than I would.
  - lsc 8y ago
    It sounds like the sort of thing that would be amenable to a greasemonkey type script? hm. sounds like an interesting project.
  - mmt 8y ago
    That and the "we're in beta" not just being able to sign up for it in a straightforward way makes it a non-starter for me (and I would expect for most consumers).
  - jacques_chester 8y ago
    > Ive used blendle. I wish there was a browser extension that would detect paywalls and let me use blendle to see the article. I designed such a system in 2012 and was granted a patent for it late last year. I asked a professional about what to do next and the advice was "wait until someone is infringing". Not hugely satisfactory. I wanted to build the scheme described in the article. My goal was: fix the internet. The way it's paid for breaks it. Fix the money and the rest would follow. Everyone who's thought about this problem for more than 10 minutes has hit on the same basic business model. I hit on it in 2008, I wasn't the first. Since then I've watched business after business fail in this area. The problem has never been the technology and I'm not sure if a successful shared scheme will ever emerge.
    - lsc 8y ago
      well, just sitting on a patent and waiting for an infringement isn't going to help fix the internet. That would be the other thing. Seems to me like a patent is a good start, a good nucleus around which you could build some venture capital to actually try to start a company to solve the problem. I totally agree that the problem isn't technology, it's the business side, the negotiation and that end. You'd need a very business-y business partner.
      - jacques_chester 8y ago
        In fact I got the patent for that purpose -- to act as a substitute for the usual pedigree pattern-matching. I just didn't see it taking 5 years. I go back and forth on whether to try and raise funds. It's an all-or-nothing proposition because of my visa status. There are also personal considerations involved. Having worked for a mixed services/enterprise company, I am now keenly aware that sales is a strategic necessity and steady PR is a massive force multiplier. You can have the best everything in the world, but if nobody's buying, it doesn't matter.

by lsc 8y ago

PrunJuice 8y ago

Check out Blendle https://blendle.com/ https://blendle.com/ They aren't Apple but they do the pay per article thing.

lsc 8y ago
I will check it out, initially, that looks like what I want.
Paul-ish 8y ago
Ive used blendle. I wish there was a browser extension that would detect paywalls and let me use blendle to see the article. Right now I have to open a new tab and search the article on blendles website. That adds friction that causes me to use blendle less than I would.
- lsc 8y ago
  It sounds like the sort of thing that would be amenable to a greasemonkey type script? hm. sounds like an interesting project.
- mmt 8y ago
  That and the "we're in beta" not just being able to sign up for it in a straightforward way makes it a non-starter for me (and I would expect for most consumers).
- jacques_chester 8y ago
  > Ive used blendle. I wish there was a browser extension that would detect paywalls and let me use blendle to see the article. I designed such a system in 2012 and was granted a patent for it late last year. I asked a professional about what to do next and the advice was "wait until someone is infringing". Not hugely satisfactory. I wanted to build the scheme described in the article. My goal was: fix the internet. The way it's paid for breaks it. Fix the money and the rest would follow. Everyone who's thought about this problem for more than 10 minutes has hit on the same basic business model. I hit on it in 2008, I wasn't the first. Since then I've watched business after business fail in this area. The problem has never been the technology and I'm not sure if a successful shared scheme will ever emerge.
  - lsc 8y ago
    well, just sitting on a patent and waiting for an infringement isn't going to help fix the internet. That would be the other thing. Seems to me like a patent is a good start, a good nucleus around which you could build some venture capital to actually try to start a company to solve the problem. I totally agree that the problem isn't technology, it's the business side, the negotiation and that end. You'd need a very business-y business partner.
    - jacques_chester 8y ago
      In fact I got the patent for that purpose -- to act as a substitute for the usual pedigree pattern-matching. I just didn't see it taking 5 years. I go back and forth on whether to try and raise funds. It's an all-or-nothing proposition because of my visa status. There are also personal considerations involved. Having worked for a mixed services/enterprise company, I am now keenly aware that sales is a strategic necessity and steady PR is a massive force multiplier. You can have the best everything in the world, but if nobody's buying, it doesn't matter.