Content Providers Missing The Point, Want To Charge

from the good-luck-with-that... dept

The Association of Online Publishers' has come out with a report claiming that about 80% of online content providers plan to charge for their content. First, I'm curious as to how they define "content providers," since other studies on this subject seem to include things that are really services (such as dating sites), where people are paying for the service to connect, and not the actual "content". At the same time, this study seems to leave out the most important part: anyone is free to charge for their content online but getting enough people to pay for it, is an entirely different story. Plenty of sites have tried and failed. Others have claimed "success" stories in charging for content, but when you break down the numbers you realize that they lost a lot more in opportunity costs by charging for access. Despite what some believe, I have no problem with people trying to charge for access to content. I just think it's a move that's destined to fail, except in very special circumstances, where (for whatever reason) the competitive situation is not particularly strong.

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