MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Murdoch's paywalls are 'antithetical to everything' claims Guardian's Rusbridger

Steven Lyle Jordan · 03-02-2010, 08:29 AM

Well, I think we've established that Rusbridger didn't know what he was talking about when he said paywalls were "antithetical" to the web. Although a pay site is not an absolute necessity, nor is it suited for every web application, there is no reason it cannot exist, and thrive, as the examples mentioned previously have demonstrated.

Though the internet has always been a "raw information" source, the World Wide Web was largely built upon commerce and profit, and profit in one form or another continues to rule the web. There are many ways to directly make money on the web, or to do something that is designed, not to make money today, but to increase status and demonstrate ability, with the intent of scoring a job or some other compensation tomorrow. I daresay there is very little on the web that is not designed to enact compensation of some sort from someone's efforts... not all of that compensation comes in the form of money, but there is still plenty of room for the compensation that does.

Pay sites, as a rule, never seem to be popular or desired, unless they have something of value that a consumer feels they cannot get elsewhere, or don't want to be bothered to dig up for themselves. Their emulation of the time-honored "subscription" process makes them an easily-understandable transition for people who previously used the same process for magazines and periodical content.

Given this, I'd suggest the concept of "pay per issue" will eventually make major inroads onto the web, especially as more and better hardware choices make it more attractive to buy digital periodicals on an individual basis, in spur-of-the-moment purchases or examination before purchasing subscriptions.

Sure, there will be people who will resist any web-based process that requires the spending of cash. But as there is plenty of room for these people to go their own way, it should in no way hinder the evolution of paid content, other than in providing the competition that said paid content will always have to rise above to justify themselves to their consumers.

03-02-2010, 08:29 AM	#63
Steven Lyle Jordan Grand Sorcerer Posts: 8,478 Karma: 5171130 Join Date: Jan 2006 Device: none	Thread Reboot Well, I think we've established that Rusbridger didn't know what he was talking about when he said paywalls were "antithetical" to the web. Although a pay site is not an absolute necessity, nor is it suited for every web application, there is no reason it cannot exist, and thrive, as the examples mentioned previously have demonstrated. Though the internet has always been a "raw information" source, the World Wide Web was largely built upon commerce and profit, and profit in one form or another continues to rule the web. There are many ways to directly make money on the web, or to do something that is designed, not to make money today, but to increase status and demonstrate ability, with the intent of scoring a job or some other compensation tomorrow. I daresay there is very little on the web that is not designed to enact compensation of some sort from someone's efforts... not all of that compensation comes in the form of money, but there is still plenty of room for the compensation that does. Pay sites, as a rule, never seem to be popular or desired, unless they have something of value that a consumer feels they cannot get elsewhere, or don't want to be bothered to dig up for themselves. Their emulation of the time-honored "subscription" process makes them an easily-understandable transition for people who previously used the same process for magazines and periodical content. Given this, I'd suggest the concept of "pay per issue" will eventually make major inroads onto the web, especially as more and better hardware choices make it more attractive to buy digital periodicals on an individual basis, in spur-of-the-moment purchases or examination before purchasing subscriptions. Sure, there will be people who will resist any web-based process that requires the spending of cash. But as there is plenty of room for these people to go their own way, it should in no way hinder the evolution of paid content, other than in providing the competition that said paid content will always have to rise above to justify themselves to their consumers.