5 ms·
> Newspapers slit their own throats back in 1994-5 or so when they decided to put their content up for free because they could sell ad space. Newspapers had li
by forapurpose 8y ago
> Newspapers slit their own throats back in 1994-5 or so when they decided to put their content up for free because they could sell ad space.
Newspapers had little choice, because they compete with lots of other free information and because payment mechanisms are too costly (in reader time and frustration).
> It was a bad idea then, and I don't think anyone's tried to fix it in the past 25 years.
In fact, in journalism in the last 25 years - maybe the last 50 or 100 years - I doubt anything has gotten more attention than than a solution to this problem.
- phjesusthatguy3 8y ago1993 -- 25 years ago -- was an experimental time for the Internet. The only competition they had was other pioneers slitting their own throats because that's how you got recognized on this new-fangled World Wide Web. A lot of newspapers thought they could sell ad space against their Internet properties for at least as much as they were selling their newspaper-based classified ads. That was obviously not the case. I appreciate that you think the WWW has always had the power it does now, but back in '93 it was a niche in the multiple ways a content provider had to distribute their wares.