

Eric Schmidt says in general paid content plans don't work online








Comments     Threshold


Not going to happen
By Motoman on 9/18/2009 10:58:56 AM , Rating: 2
...virtually all news online is commoditized...and democratized. Fundamentally, the only way a news source could get away with charging for content is if they were well and truly a unique, niche offering that no one else could compete with.

I can think of precisely one example: WSJ.

I don't believe for a second that regular newspapers have any chance in hell of charging for content. Especially not unless they can convince other online sources like Reuters and CNN to start charging for their content too.

If you got every online newspaper to charge, then people may pay because they feel they have no choice (bloggers and similar stuff notwithstanding). Granted that at least one credible news source will always be free, no other regular news sources can ever charge for their news.

