3 ms·

I'm not going to suggest that pay walls are the best option for the newspapers. They probably aren't. However, I do hope that, over time, people get more used

by mrshoe 17y ago

I'm not going to suggest that pay walls are the best option for the newspapers. They probably aren't. However, I do hope that, over time, people get more used to paying for things online. I think that a culture of paying for goods and services will promote a higher level of quality on the web. TV is a great example. The ad-supported networks tend to milk TV shows for money long past their prime, while stations like HBO can insist on higher quality programming because that's what their customers pay for. I would bet that if there were a news network that didn't rely on advertising, it wouldn't be nearly as sensationalistic as the ad-supported ones and you wouldn't hear lines like, "a common household substance that can kill you on contact... tune in at 11." Pay walls may turn out to be bad for the ailing newspapers, but I think it would be good for the web, in the long term.

vaksel 17y ago
TV is a bad example. Premium channels have a ton of money from their subscriptions, so they have a ton of money to invest into new programming. Take HBO for example, the Band of Brothers 10 episode series cost $125 million to make. The Pacific miniseries, has a budget of $250 million. Regular channels simply don't have the $$$ to match up. So while HBO has truly epic shows, regular channels are stuck doing cop shows, since they are cheap to make. News on the other hand is static. The paid services aren't going to report better news. They aren't going to report more news. Nothing will change in how they are run, its just a way for them to start charging for content that is free elsewhere.
extension 17y ago
It's become a cliche, but I sincerely believe that the lack of a decent micropayment system sabotaged any chance of that for-pay culture existing on the internet and prevented it from becoming the economic engine we once envisioned. However, such phenomenal social progress has been made, and could only have been made, in that commercial vacuum, and there is more to come. It's not worth giving that up for the quick fix of a consumerized internet.
- omouse 17y ago
  It's become a cliche, but I sincerely believe that the lack of a decent micropayment system sabotaged any chance of that for-pay culture existing on the internet and prevented it from becoming the economic engine we once envisioned You mean micropayment for the Web. The Internet is fine and making a lot of cash for everyone involved. It's quite the economic engine.

by mrshoe 17y ago

vaksel 17y ago

TV is a bad example. Premium channels have a ton of money from their subscriptions, so they have a ton of money to invest into new programming. Take HBO for example, the Band of Brothers 10 episode series cost $125 million to make. The Pacific miniseries, has a budget of $250 million. Regular channels simply don't have the $$$ to match up. So while HBO has truly epic shows, regular channels are stuck doing cop shows, since they are cheap to make. News on the other hand is static. The paid services aren't going to report better news. They aren't going to report more news. Nothing will change in how they are run, its just a way for them to start charging for content that is free elsewhere.

extension 17y ago

It's become a cliche, but I sincerely believe that the lack of a decent micropayment system sabotaged any chance of that for-pay culture existing on the internet and prevented it from becoming the economic engine we once envisioned. However, such phenomenal social progress has been made, and could only have been made, in that commercial vacuum, and there is more to come. It's not worth giving that up for the quick fix of a consumerized internet.

omouse 17y ago
It's become a cliche, but I sincerely believe that the lack of a decent micropayment system sabotaged any chance of that for-pay culture existing on the internet and prevented it from becoming the economic engine we once envisioned You mean micropayment for the Web. The Internet is fine and making a lot of cash for everyone involved. It's quite the economic engine.