www.andrewmackay.net:

Some days the internet puts things together for you. Not often, because, it’s mostly an inanimate object or something. But, sometimes, you read a story and then read another one, and think… hey, weren’t those connected?

This very thing happened to me the other day. I was reading about TechDirt’s CwF+RtB=$$$ (connect with fans + reason to buy = cash). It’s essentially their attempt to show the music industry (or the movie industry, or the book industry, or the news industry) how to develop a sustainable business model in an era where access to your content pretty much has to be free (and if it’s not, consumers will find a way to make it so).

Pretty neat idea. It makes sense too.

• Fans get content without a forced package.
• Pay for premium content / special access / special gifts
• Fans pay because they like you or the site — not because they have to
• Fans are more likely to return (and potentially spend more dollars)
• Business model doesn’t predicate itself upon your ability to turn every transaction into a billable event.

That’s good for you and good for everybody.(Sidenote: like TechDirt, I’d be willing to take down my website and not contribute to a blog for a year in exchange for $100,000,000.00. My email address is in the sidebar. Contact me there. Check must be given time to clear. Sultan Whomever from Arganistan, I still haven’t received the first check you promised me in exchange for access to my bank account so you could clear those funds, so don’t even offer this time. Whatever.)

So, I finish reading about TechDirt’s plan, and I get an e-mail from a google alert I’ve set up. It e-mails me items about electronic publishing. CBS had published an article on its website entitled, “Will Readers Ever Pay for Online News.”

The article talked about various platforms for charging for online access to news. It talked about how they just needed to come up with something that would work like the old model (advertising + subscription) because the new model (online advertising) isn’t working.

The whole time I read, I thought back to TechDirt, and they way they’re giving their readers ownership and options instead of alienation and coercion.

The people who are getting ready to make a push for pay-for-access online news remind me of something a bank president once said to me… “As long as one bank in this market has their staff still wearing ties, we’ll all still wear ties.” As long as one news outlet is giving away content, the others will struggle to charge for the same content.

Why? There are just so many different (and free) sources of news out there that these news providers have provided us with no real reason to want to buy their content.

They’re going to have to start thinking differently. They’re going to have to give us, the consumers (you know, the ones with the wallets they want to stick their hands in) a reason to let them have our money.

They’re going to have to think like TechDirt… because, until they connect with their fans, and give us a reason to buy, there will be no $$$ for them.