Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Jordan
The web is rife with pay content. People will pay for content they want, if they consider it worth having. And if you read the first post, you'll note that I wasn't only referring to general news content, but magazine and periodical "specialty" content as well. Based on the evidence, there seems every reason to expect that people can get used to paying for content they want... even when they don't really want to pay for it (because, after all, who really wants to pay for anything?... but somehow, people make money off of us).
Perhaps general news sites will have the hardest time establishing paywalls compared to other types of sites... but I don't see it as impossible, if their customers believe they are getting a quality site that speaks to them and filters out the noise they don't want to hear. In essence, this is the promise of all specialty sites, and the reason people are willing to pay to get them.
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Most newspapers here have a paywall. It works, because they have a free front. If you want to read some headlines, don't pay, if you want the in-depth articles, you will have to pay for them. And that's where I think it will be going. Information will stay free, but detailed information won't. It's just the finding of a good balance that will take some time.