Make 'em pay

I'm going to be honest: I love free things, but I'm starting to get sick of freeloaders.

I'm talking about people who expect their news to be free. Though I agree that making news free helps spread knowledge to all people, I would also argue that by not reimbursing media outlets and journalists for their hard work, we are working to kill the dissemination of knowledge. Papers are struggling, and if they die, some communities will no longer have anyone to present the news.

There are some remedies to help the media in their current struggle.They should work on adding exclusive content and video technologies to their Internet pages. This will give readers extra incentive to visit their sites, and the more page views a site has, the more the paper should be able to charge advertisers.

Internet advertising will not save the paper’s budget, though. As Walter Isaacson says in his article “How to Save Your Newspaper,” a paper is still losing subscription and newsstand sales dollars if it relies on advertising money alone. That’s why I think Isaacson’s idea of charging readers a small fee for reading that day’s online edition is a good one.

However, I would more so agree with Josh Quittner in “The Race for a Better Read” that newspapers will need to develop a new reading device before the thought of paying for Internet journalism will take off. Readers are accustomed to receiving Internet news for free, so they will complain and probably not purchase the news unless there is some novelty or new technology attached.

For example, Quittner said that music listeners began purchasing music after the iPod came out. Prior to the iPod’s invention, people were downloading music for free, much like people read news sites for free. With that in mind, I would say that people will expect some cool device they can show off to their friends or an enhanced reading experience if they are going to start paying for news.

I encourage newspapers to explore these new technologies. I also encourage readers to realize that maybe they should start paying for their news. Otherwise, we might lose valuable resources, and thereby lose knowledge in this age of information.