Is the Free Web About to Expire?
Lance Ulanoff,
PC Mag,
May 15, 2009
Frankly, the scenario described here to end the free web is ridiculous. "Let's assume that Murdoch carries through with his micro-payment plans and that the newspapers actually do get their act together, convince Congress to loosen monopoly laws, and then work in concert to create a fixed online menu of content prices. With all this once-free content behind a pay gate, one would assume that smaller news sites and blogs-even citizen journalists-would fill the free gap. Not so fast... Even major sites, with networks of blogs, are reporting huge losses. What incentive do any of them have to create free news content to fill the vacancy left by traditional news media?" A state-sanctioned newspaper content monopoly? Not only is the concept itself repugnant, for so many reasons, it ignores the reality that news sources (like, say, me) have significant incentive to bypass that monopoly and to publish directly online.
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