Time: How to Save Your Newspaper (It's Micropayments!)
Walter Isaacson, former managing editor of TIME, president and CEO of the Aspen Institute, writes this week's Time Magazine cover story titled "How to Save Your Newspaper". His article is all about how save your newspaper from what appears to be inevitable financial ruin. Isaacson's answer: micropayments.
The key to attracting online revenue, I think, is to come up with an iTunes-easy method of micropayment. We need something like digital coins or an E-ZPass digital wallet — a one-click system with a really simple interface that will permit impulse purchases of a newspaper, magazine, article, blog or video for a penny, nickel, dime or whatever the creator chooses to charge.
He's aware the earlier efforts (citing Flooz, Beenz, CyberCash, Bitpass, Peppercoin and DigiCash!) - but feels the times have changed. Along the way, he chastises PayPal for being too expensive for true micropayments and mentions Spare Change, Bee-Tokens, Tipjoy, and TwitPay.
How *NOT* to save your newspaper! There is a reason that micropayments have never worked. Content is far better monetized via advertising and subscription. No one wants to make a financial decision about each little piece of content they consume.
Posted by: pwb | February 06, 2009 at 07:29 PM
It's never worked before, but now that my business is dieing too it will work now! Just like the music business!
-Gene
Posted by: Gene Hoffman | February 06, 2009 at 11:19 PM
Agree with Gene.
Content providers definitely need a new revenue source, especially since the advertising market is in the toilet.
That said, what's changed from 1 year ago or 10 years ago such that the next micropayments provider won't encounter the same long list of friction that made all the others roadkill? Well the dearth of advertising revenue has changed, but I think we're all expecting (praying?) that's not a long term state.
Posted by: Allen Weinberg | February 07, 2009 at 10:56 AM
See also: http://blogs.knoxnews.com/knx/silence/archives/2009/02/theyre_talking.shtml
"The idea of micropayments is that readers would pay a small fee - a quarter, or a dime, or a penny - to access content. Micropayments have been talked about ever since the early days of the Web. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for them."
Posted by: Scott Loftesness | February 07, 2009 at 02:27 PM
There are two sides to this problem, like everything else. The content folks want to monetise everything they write (since Adtg. is currently almost dead) but the readers may not want to pay for all and any content.
Mode of Payment (micropayments, etc) is a separate issue. But the real issue that emerges is segmented content and the ability to make this segmented content available to the appropriate customers in a economic, efficient and timely manner. Then the question whether customers would want to pay for it, rather what content would customers want to pay for? There are several other questions that one may have to answer to reach to the bootom of this.
Posted by: Pawan Bakhshi | February 08, 2009 at 06:18 PM