Short Content for Free?

 

Harper’s Senior Editor Bill Wasik is correct when he says that amateurs can compete with big media though youtube and other free sites. The noise and static on the internet means that only so much can find its way into the public conscience. Sometimes it’s these youtube videos that make it there, not a feature in Harper’s. That’s also what makes shorter content so accessible – it’s an easy sound bite rather than a detailed analysis. We are so used to having these types of information streams for free online, that I don’t see how news organizations can start charging for it. Wasik also makes a good point that the way people browse the internet is not conducive to a pricing model for shorter content. Unless some sort of auto-payment is established on a site beforehand, people aren’t likely to stop what they’re doing to give payment information for every tiny story they see. As a scary conclusion to all of this, Wasik predicts that pricing models for shorter newsy content may eventually be inevitable after most media organizations go bankrupt. When free, quality content becomes scarcer, people may be more likely to pay for it. However, a new pricing model is unlikely to emerge until these media shutdowns force the market in that direction.