Translation of this final graph from a NY Times story yesterday: Under developing business models from news media, consumers will wind up paying for professional news content...at least until the pirates have their way or journalists themselves find a a way to make money as independent operators.
The BIG questions remaining: Is Google part of the problem and the solution? [Google CEO Eric Schmidt's edited speech is here] And what is Microsoft's contribution to a solution? How does a newspaper like the Times or the Journal gracefully cease printing?
"“For more than a century, advertisers have subsidized readers and viewers, and that is changing,” said Mr. Curley (the chief executive of The A.P.). “We are in the beginning of that change. To say that the Internet is fixed and we missed that opportunity is nonsense. We are in the beginning of a transition of what will be a proliferation of models, many of which will include getting more compensation from readers and users.”
Digital evangelists rightfully heap scorn on newspapers that leveraged monopolies into huge profits without investing for a day they knew would come, but newspapers have walked back the cat on the cost side as far as they can. Their gaze will inevitably turn toward consumers and the portals that serve them. The reckoning is at hand."
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