Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[AlMaur777 AT aol.com]

In a message dated 12/29/00 12:11:11 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
internetworkers AT franklin.oit.unc.edu writes:


> > I am troubled by this movement toward paying for information online
> > since it places information in the same cart as exotic fruit.... In a
> > "free" and "democratic" society, we *must* be informed before we can
> > make informed decisions.


A recent wired article even mentioned my own LocalBusiness.com in connection 
with a story about the questionable legality of charging for links (which we 
apparently do after five or something like that, it was new to me).
But I'll tell you this, if we don't find a way to make delivering news online 
pay, we won't have it.
It's nice that information wants to be free, but my landlord and grocer both 
want to be paid.
I suspect as the Net matures and workable ad models evolve along with 
workable pay-for-what-you-get models, it won't seem at all unnatural to pay 
for a subscription or special services, such as access to an archive or 
micropayments per story read or somesuch.
I speak only for myself here, not for my company. 
But I expect we'll be seeing a whole lot less free information online.
It will be better information. You won't have to sort through nearly as much 
dross to get it. But you may have to come up with a few bucks one way or the 
other to have access to it.
As a Net-o-holic who's online more than anyone else I know, I have mixed 
feelings about all this. Nevertheless, writing is how I make a living, and 
someone has to pay me or you just don't get my work.
Everyone in the content biz online is afraid to charge because thus far it's 
been disasterous for those who tried except the Wall Street Journal, and even 
they're still losing buckets of money.
In the future though, I believe it's inevitable. 
Our company plans to make a profit without going that direction so far as I 
know. 
We'll see how that turns out.
We're already seeing some of the better sites, Salon, The Street.com, APB, 
among others falter. The unfortunate truth is that professional writing and 
reporting not only is not free, it's not even inexpensive.
If people really want the information they need to make informed decisions in 
this so-called information age, they'll pay for it, I betcha.
Allan




Allan Maurer/staff writer/Triangle/Charlotte
amaurer AT LocalBusiness.com    
PHONE NUMBER: 919-667-1733. 
500 N. Duke Street,55106, Durham, N.C. 27701

http://www.LocalBusiness.com - "Your local business destination on the web"
http://www.digitalsouth.com - digitalsouth magazine - The South's source for
technology, venture capital and finance.