So why do I like the library model and ad-supported model for e-books, not just the charge model? Because people online love “Free.” Public domain books are probably drawing many times the number of readers that DRM-infested commercial titles are. Meanwhile Creative Commons-licensed books are proliferating. Something to ponder in the era of $25 hardbacks and some e-books costing almost as much?
Now, effective September 19, the New York Times is killing off the Select Service, for which, as a nonsubscriber to the P edition, I was paying $49 a year for access to back issues and certain opinion articles. Here’s yet another victory for “free.”
Awesome link fodder
Except for the years 1923 through 1986, the archives will be free, and that should be awesome for bloggers who want to link to “the first draft of history,” as news articles have been called. In arguing against expensive Star Wars-style antimissile programs, for example, you’ll be able to point readers to articles on the Maginot Line, thereby enriching the Times along the way. Theoretically the Maginot Line article could even come with ads for tourism in France or books on the Line or the Star Wars debate.
Obvious questions: Will the Washington Post and other national competitors follow, including the Wall Street Journal, whose new owner, Rupert Murdoch, has raised the possibility of an entirely free WSJ? I still can’t get over the refusal of many newspapers to lock up obits—a issue rather personal to me, given the way the Post took my father’s offline. From hospitals to funeral homes investment advisors, ads possibilities abound.
Related: Times’ own obit on Select and other items via Techmeme and, fittingly, Google News. Not only is Google News ad supported, it’s also drawing large numbers of readers to the Times, making it more costly than ever to wall off readers from the full text. Now, if Netfolks can only persuade the Times to do full RSS feeds, in which, yes, it could embed ads.
And speaking of price sensitivity: MediaBistro item on hardbacks vs. trade paperbacks for literary fiction.
Coming later today: Thoughts on the IDPF standard and e-book-capable devices costing $50.
Would a micropayment model work?
Instead of subscribing for 49$ why not just pay for the articles you need?
10c 1$ whatever…
This shows me that there is great need for a working pay-per-view model for content on the web.
I hate paying $20-$30 for a book. I also hate paying $50 for a video game and $200 for a software program. This is why I price my books at what I think of as highly reasonable prices (between $1 and $3.99). Still, I think that the ‘free’ model is limited. Advertisers may pay a lot to help the latest Stephen King or Nora Roberts book successful, but I don’t see them paying much for the new author and small publisher.
Compensation models are highly important and I’m certainly willing to experiment–as I have been doing over the years I’ve been in business. But I think a rush to the old television model of advertiser-supported media is premature.
Rob Preece
Publisher, http://www.BooksForABuck.com