Hello everybody, hope your Monday was better than mine. Anyways my father came back for his trip so I should have more time to invest in the class.
Today I got my Time Magazine in the mail. The front page of this week’s edition (February 16, 2009) reads “How to save your NEWSPAPER”. I went right to it (know that I have time to read).
In essence it talks about how newspapers and magazines around the United States are going to a very bad time, trying to adapt to the new technologies in a way that produces a profit for them.
You’ve heard the stories of newspaper companies filing for bankruptcy and all that. The article also talks about how the new generations of readers are so accustomed to the idea that what they see or read online is free.
I for one have always thought that “There is not such a thing as a free meal”, but at the same time I always believed that just like Google newspapers online got paid by advertisement; but it seems that this is not the case, and that in fact newspapers, magazines, are in some kind of limbo where they haven’t found that something that helps them get paid reasonably for the content they provide.
The author (Walter Issacson) offers a very simple solution; micropayments, in summary you pay for what you read, the problem with his idea (in my opinion) is that he is relying on a technology that is not around the corner, in the sense that;
There would be the necessity of a standard accepted by everyone, for this kind of transaction.
It would have to work on every device where the consumer wants to get his or her content (iphone, palm, Linux, PC).
Therefore, I thought of a different solution, which relies on technology that exists now. How about if providers get together and come up with a device like the kindle, subsidized down to let’s say…99 (I’ll buy it) with an anywhere-download-capability (like the kindle). Where I pay for wait I read… say $.05-$.10 per article, this way, the user feels he or she is being charged fairly, and on the side of the content provider it can focus its resources better on articles and topics that the market says are valuable. And at the end of the month the user gets charged on his credit card, PayPal account, whatever.
In conclusion I think that valuable content should be rewarded, and that newspapers, and Magazines are very important for communities, whether they are electronic or on paper, they offer first and foremost the service of journalism that helps uncover the injustices and heroes of our world.
What is your take on online content??
Do you think it should be free???
What do you think of my idea??
Please comment. :)
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Well, I believe that you are right in most of what you are saying. I, too, read the article and for a mere moment I went into a state of shock to find that they are actually saying that newspaper may not exist in major cities. Yes, I firmly believe newspaper's along with all types of media that inform us of the conditions and situations around us or in the U.S itself should be free.
ReplyDeleteWell Goodnight I need to go to sleep
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