Bezos buys Washington Post. Really.

[6charlong]

I get emails from the Washington Post every day. They contain just the headlines for some articles. If I click the headline it takes me to the article. Why don't they show me the first paragraph of the article and give me a button to buy the article for something like10-20 Amazon Coins (to avoid CC fees)?

I don't want to subscribe to the whole newspaper but I'd buy 5 or 10 articles a week. If I find I'm buying a lot more then I would want to look at some of the options for a larger part of the newspaper.

There might be enough people buying individual articles and columns to add some useful revenue.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by 6charlong

I get emails from the Washington Post every day. They contain just the headlines for some articles. If I click the headline it takes me to the article. Why don't they show me the first paragraph of the article and give me a button to buy the article for something like10-20 Amazon Coins (to avoid CC fees)?

I don't want to subscribe to the whole newspaper but I'd buy 5 or 10 articles a week. If I find I'm buying a lot more then I would want to look at some of the options for a larger part of the newspaper.

There might be enough people buying individual articles and columns to add some useful revenue.

If Bezos ever gets involved with running the WP that kind of microtransaction system is going to be on the short list of new features.

[manfred63]

I'm sure it won't. Pay-per-view is the last thing people need and want.

A paper is a daily composition of different articles arround different topics. Arts, sports, politics, fun and leisure and so fourth. That's one reason among others why subscribers like their papers.

If you want to pay per article you'd reduce a newspaper to a news agency which is something completely different. I understand that you don't want to read all articles. Well, nobody does and nobody reads all articles of a newspaper. But it's good that you have the choice to read them or not once you paid your one or two bucks or whatever the WP or NYT costs where you live.

[FizzyWater]

Originally Posted by HansTWN

I use pressdisplay/newspaperdirect for $9.99 a month and usually read the IHT. On Sundays I then pick one of the other papers on offer. I consider it to be a good deal.

Never heard of it, but that's pretty darn cool. I could imagine getting lost reading various newspapers on that site!

My local paper isn't important enough to be listed, though.

[frahse]

Originally Posted by manfred63

I'm sure it won't. Pay-per-view is the last thing people need and want.

A paper is a daily composition of different articles arround different topics. Arts, sports, politics, fun and leisure and so fourth. That's one reason among others why subscribers like their papers.

If you want to pay per article you'd reduce a newspaper to a news agency which is something completely different. I understand that you don't want to read all articles. Well, nobody does and nobody reads all articles of a newspaper. But it's good that you have the choice to read them or not once you paid your one or two bucks or whatever the WP or NYT costs where you live.

My friend, I understand your point, but the "complete" newspaper or magazine subscription is a thing of the past at least for the majority of the people.
Likewise a complete series of hard bounds or encyclopedia on a shelf in the den. That is not the "way we roll these days."

People want only to pay for what they specifically desire. The rest is just clutter and additional expense in these busy day. These days, few people sit in their arm chairs by the fire or in the front porch swing on Sundays reading the paper.
They want what they want and are reluctant to pay for even that if they can get away for it.

That goose is cooked. The horse has fled.

What I want now is an à la carte TV program selection.
1 program or 1 series or 1 channel

That is all I have time for and I certainly don't want to pay for anything else.

[Yamada]

Originally Posted by frahse

What I want now is an à la carte TV program selection.
1 program or 1 series or 1 channel.

I pity the fool who doesn't realize this is the 21st century, over 13.5 years into it, in fact.

Netflix, dude, Netflix. Or Amazon, or Hulu, or Xhamster. Whatever slows your roll during down times.

[manfred63]

Originally Posted by frahse

My friend, I understand your point, but the "complete" newspaper or magazine subscription is a thing of the past at least for the majority of the people.

For which majority? The majority of internet forum users?

There is no newspaper that I've heard of that lets you pay-per-article in 2013. Maybe you're just projecting your wishes into reality.

The majority of newspaper readers still get and read and their printed copy on a daily basis.

If you'd pay-per-article, a simple and stupid news article about Britney Spears would get much more attention (and money) that a background article about, let's say, medical experiments in Angola. You know, there are actually journalists in Angola. And it may take weeks and months to get the facts for such an article. Pay-per-article would destroy independent journalism with is a fundamental basis for freedom and democracy.

If you've never read a in-depth-analysis in your newspaper: Take two bucks, go to the kiosk and buy yourself a better one. It's your choice which paper you read.

[Kumabjorn]

There are actually plenty of newspapers that let you buy an article for 99 cents, I think that is their problem, they don't realize that they are over charging, of the price was 2 cents s lot more people would be buying but I guess it is an accounting nightmare.

[6charlong]

Originally Posted by manfred63

For which majority? The majority of internet forum users?

There is no newspaper that I've heard of that lets you pay-per-article in 2013. Maybe you're just projecting your wishes into reality.

The majority of newspaper readers still get and read and their printed copy on a daily basis.

If you'd pay-per-article, a simple and stupid news article about Britney Spears would get much more attention (and money) that a background article about, let's say, medical experiments in Angola. You know, there are actually journalists in Angola. And it may take weeks and months to get the facts for such an article. Pay-per-article would destroy independent journalism with is a fundamental basis for freedom and democracy.

If you've never read a in-depth-analysis in your newspaper: Take two bucks, go to the kiosk and buy yourself a better one. It's your choice which paper you read.

I do subscribe to a newspaper, it publishes coverage of events local to my own community, but like most Americans I live thousands of miles from Washington DC. The WP covers local news too, as well as national news; like most cities, Washington DC is a company town--in this case the company is the US Federal Government and that's the only local news in DC that affects my life. I don't care who is getting married there or what the DC garden club is doing, but I do want to learn what reporters who follow the Government closely are finding out. The only police reports, street closures, block parties, etc. that affects me is printed in the local paper.

Amazon Coins make it possible for me to buy Post articles. Every credit card transaction includes a bank charge for the use of the CC so it's not profitable to charge 10 cents for anything bought with a credit card, but Amazon Coins solves this problem. I can buy 3,000 Amazon Coins for $30, pay one CC charge, and leave the Coins in my account for Post articles, purchased a few cents at a time.

I don't know if something like this is one of the things Jeff Bezos has in mind for the Washington Post but I hope so. It seems to work out for everyone.

[fjtorres]

Bezos interview with the WP:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifest...c_story_1.html

In his first interview since his $250 million purchase of The Post was announced in early August, Bezos said his basic approach to operating the business will be similar to the philosophy that has guided him in building Amazon.com from a start-up in 1995 to an Internet colossus with $61 Billion in sales last year.

“We’ve had three big ideas at Amazon that we’ve stuck with for 18 years, and they’re the reason we’re successful: Put the customer first. Invent. And be patient,” he said. “If you replace ‘customer’ with ‘reader,’ that approach, that point of view, can be successful at The Post, too.”

It’s important for The Post not just to survive, but to grow,” he said. “The product of The Post is still great. The piece that’s missing is that it’s a challenged business. No business can continue to shrink. That can only go on for so long before irrelevancy sets in.”

In the interview, Bezos stressed that he has no immediate fixes for newspapers in general or for The Post, which is beset by Web-based competition that has weakened its advertising base and steadily sapped its print readership.

Bezos suggested that the current model for newspapers in the Internet era is deeply flawed: “The Post is famous for its investigative journalism,” he said. “It pours energy and investment and sweat and dollars into uncovering important stories. And then a bunch of Web sites summarize that [work] in about four minutes and readers can access that news for free. One question is, how do you make a living in that kind of environment? If you can’t, it’s difficult to put the right resources behind it. . . . Even behind a paywall [digital subscription], Web sites can summarize your work and make it available for free. From a reader point of view, the reader has to ask, ‘Why should I pay you for all that journalistic effort when I can get it for free’ from another site?”

Uh, yeah...
About that last bit...

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Uh, yeah...
About that last bit...

I only read free news

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

There are actually plenty of newspapers that let you buy an article for 99 cents, I think that is their problem, they don't realize that they are over charging,

What really stinks are the academic and medical journals which try to charge $20 and more for one of their articles.

I wonder if they refund those payments when the articles are retracted. Not likely!

[Kumabjorn]

Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg

What really stinks are the academic and medical journals which try to charge $20 and more for one of their articles.

I wonder if they refund those payments when the articles are retracted. Not likely!

Enroll in a university class and you get free access to academic material . Don't know is that uorks for online education though.