I do see your point of course and hope that OpenID-like systems will solve that problem.

EH – why would you want to remove all paid content from Google? Other people will want to see it. Hope I’m not mising out on something because you gave it thumbs down….

In his original Wired article, he really emphasized that everything will be free. But now his core argument is about freemium, not much of which is controversial. I think he softened and refined his ideas.

However, the some key problems remain the same, one of which is the his “marginal cost drives price to zero” argument.

My response is the same as before. See this.
http://www.slow...ze-youtube.html

Please read Mark Cuban’s post linked in it, about YouTube’s cost problem, as well as my other posts about free.

Likewise, over-the-air TV operated essentially on that same model for its entire existence. As a viewer, you accepted the commercial messages because the programming was worth receiving and that was the deal. Again, a fair trade.

Just as HBO and other premium TV channels show, people will pay a fee not to have commercials. Would I pay a subscription fee to receive a version of the WSJ or NYT or Washington Post with no ads? You bet.

To those who argue that people can get the same content for free elsewhere on the web, yeah, sure you can, if you’re willing to wander around the web looking at random sources, which means valuing your time at zero. 7-11 proved the marginal value of convenience long ago.

These properties should experiment with two versions — the ad-supported “network TV” version such as they have now, and the “HBO” paid subscription version with no ads.

Speak with someone at about the midpoint of a movie on TBS or TNT, after they’ve suffered through the Chinese water torture of a half-dozen interminable commercial pods bracketed by inane chatter from the utterly superfluous hosts. Ask whether or not they would pay a fee at that moment to watch the rest of the movie without the commercials and insipid interstitial yakking. You’ll set a new record for response rate.

So, Chris is neither right nor wrong. So any idea could be a good one.

However, I think we are all stuck with an assumption about structures to help generate these ideas. For example, why does there have to be a paywall that is content-specific? As people have mentioned many sites like the NYT have played with this..

So for example,, why not make the paywall demand based?

For example, make content free for the first 1,000,000 users. After that, you have to pay for it.. Possibly with increasing scale, so 2x at 10,000,000 users and 4x at 100,000,000. The theory being that once demand is generated for content, you can start charging for it, because people will be more compelled to view it due to recommendations from friends, trusted influencers etc. The more demand, the more you can charge.

It’s classic supply and demand economics.

Increasing demand with an ineslatisc supply should increase the price..

Digital content should be free, as it’s inherent value, IMO cannot be gauged in the same manner as physical products or ongoing services.

It is the access to content that needs to be monetized.

Offensichtlich haben Verlage nur wenige Ideen, wie sie im Internet Geld verdienen. Über das Internet tun sie das ja schon lange.

Wired editor-in chief-Chris Anderson kicked off his magazine’s Disruptive By Design conference today in New York City w…

Can’t the wired crowd come up with something original?

“The NYTimes tried this model already, it was a flop.

Don’t you guys read the news?”

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Someone has decided to use my contact info . . . not cool.

Revenue from “traditional” media may shrink, but I doubt a device such as the kindle will mark the end of newspapers and magazines – you have to think about WHY people buy them. They are cheap, easy and most importantly FAST. Remember, it’s still quicker to pick up a magazine off a shelf than to find and buy an eBook on the kindle, and even when the kindle is faster you’ll still have a boat load of people who just “don’t get it”.

Just my 2 cents…

Just an idea!