“I actually wonder if this post could have been titles – “Is there an opportunity arising that will make someone very rich…”…

But… Bary Diller was quoted as saying -The Internet ‘Absolutely’ Will Become a Paid System’. Time Projection: Within 5 Years” – http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=19552.  And he is not the first to make this statement.  News organizations around the work are grappling with this dilemma – the paradigm has shifted and their businesses and business models are proving to be out of touch and out of date.  Everyone is scrambling to tell us that real content should be paid for and people should pay.  This question is being asked by so many people and so many businesses as they struggle for survival and try to figure out the next generation of news and entertainment.  But will they?  Can you really stem the tide and change the mentality of a consumer who is accustomed to getting free content online?  Or are you just opening a door for new competitors who can think of a reduced cost business model where they can still provide free content and can get reimbursement some other way???

I think there are 2 problems with the idea that content will be paid for.  I wonder which business can be pointed to that provided free access and then successfully made the transition to paid.  I cannot recall one that did it successfully.  The internet mentaility is spilling over now and affecting conferences, magazines, newspapers, and televisions.  And second, even if there were a business model to follow – are you not just opening the door to new competitors who figure out a lower cost model and do not charge for content?  Media companies will argue that their content is superior, that their writers are true journalists and people should pay for that.  But look at the trend in local news stations – the “credible”, “senior” newscasters are being replaced with younger, lower cost newscasters.  Why?  Because credible, while important, is not a deciding factor for the consuming public.  The second issue is timing.  There is a wave of ways to get news now, and that wave is growing.  And to have these “credible sources” and “credible processes” intervening in the distribution of news slows down the process and ultimately causes these “credible sources” to be late to the game.

No question – these sources can and will become opinion pages and opinion sources and some people will be willing to pay for that.  Is that enough to sustain these businesses – I would think not – but we will see.

So go ahead, start charging.  Let’s see what happens and how it plays out.  My opinion – the door is opening for new competitors and soon we will be hearing about news and information sources that we never heard of before, and some entrepreneurial thinkers will become very rich in the process…