Posted on 05/11/2009 7:35:29 PM PDT by re_tail20
News Corp plans to introduce micro-payments for individual articles and premium subscriptions to the Wall Street Journal's website this year in a milestone in the news industry's race to find better online business models.
"A sophisticated micropayments service" will launch this autumn, Robert Thomson, editor-in-chief of Dow Jones and managing editor of the Journal, told the Financial Times.
The move will position the Journal as the first big newspaper title to adopt a model many are studying cautiously as they seek to reduce dependence on plunging advertising revenues.
It comes as John Kerry, the Massachusetts senator leading congressional hearings on the future of journalism, told the FT it was conceivable that publishers could be given limited exemption from antitrust laws to discuss online models.
(Excerpt) Read more at ft.com ...
Fine. I’ll pay for it with the same invisible dollars the Fed is using.
So the WSJ wants me to pay to read its daily screed for amnesty and open borders?
I think not.
In other news, my kitteh informed me today that she is requesting a “micropayment” each time I eat crap out of her litterbox.
I’m pretty sure my level of consumption of WSJ and cat crap will be about the same, going forward. So I’m not all that concerned about busting the Tick family budget.
On the other hand, I might offer a small “micropayment” to see a Youtube video of Peggy Noonan receiving a vigorous bitchslapping. I bet they could raise a little dough that way.
I don’t read WSJ as it already takes me all week to get through a Barron’s and the monday edition of IBD, but if I did I’d be OK with a small fee if the trouble of engaging in the transaction were small and I could avoid ads.
Heh...nothing that is discussed in the Newspapers (few that remain) will not be discussed within blogs. So...nice ides, no workee...
I think micro payments are a good idea.
IBD? Now that’s a paper worth reading. The WSJ? Not so much, cats like it as it does have an odor after being used to it’s fullest capacity as fish-wrap.
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