But if the news is free, who will produce it?
Time magazine has an interesting article called "How to save your newspaper" which proposes a novel idea for helping newspapers and magazines on the verge of going out of business: charging for content. And as much as my natural tendency is to lead toward the "Information wants to be free" way of looking at things, the article does bring up some valid points.
Numerous organizations have managed to develop all sorts of new ideas and create added value and profit opportunity through open source systems and mass collaboration--among them Amazon, Ebay, and Second Life. In fact, Amazon, due to its openness with its content and tools, is poised to become the dominant retail force on the planet. So a strong case can be made that if newspapers and magazines cannot figure out new business models, they should simply fail.
But what, exactly, is that business model that will let local newspapers harness the power of the new Web instead of going out of business entirely?
Numerous organizations have managed to develop all sorts of new ideas and create added value and profit opportunity through open source systems and mass collaboration--among them Amazon, Ebay, and Second Life. In fact, Amazon, due to its openness with its content and tools, is poised to become the dominant retail force on the planet. So a strong case can be made that if newspapers and magazines cannot figure out new business models, they should simply fail.
But what, exactly, is that business model that will let local newspapers harness the power of the new Web instead of going out of business entirely?