Friday, December 26, 2008
The free marketplace of ideas has never been about free content
Yeah, that's it.
Back in the early 70's at this alternative newspaper, the business ("hiss, scorn") manager was trying to persuade everyone that after the failure of the subscription/stand sales model they should consider the advertising revenue from the circulation numbers of a give-away paper. The perception that the immortal prose of these defenders of right was certainly worth more than nothing did not interfere with a copycat making the give-away model wildly successful in the area within ten years.
We've all had enough jingoism for now, but that's always been the American way: Somebody has got to pay. The struggle to determine who pays what, in the free marketplace of ideas, hasn't always been good for journalism. Yellow journalism and pandering, dishonest circulation wars are just two examples of what these defenders of freedom will do on the way to the often seemingly all too easy sale of their ideas and soul.
Money hasn't been all bad for journalism. It was the economics of market diversity that drove the early wire services to strive for what would pass as objectivity. This professional objective did more to lift the news business out of the murk of diarists and pamphleteers as it has ever been. Money enables enterprise; reporting and otherwise. It has always been about what people were willing to pay.
By the way, working this out will take off significant pressure in the economic struggle over intellectual property rights. ¶ 12/26/2008 03:33:00 PM
Back in the early 70's at this alternative newspaper, the business ("hiss, scorn") manager was trying to persuade everyone that after the failure of the subscription/stand sales model they should consider the advertising revenue from the circulation numbers of a give-away paper. The perception that the immortal prose of these defenders of right was certainly worth more than nothing did not interfere with a copycat making the give-away model wildly successful in the area within ten years.
We've all had enough jingoism for now, but that's always been the American way: Somebody has got to pay. The struggle to determine who pays what, in the free marketplace of ideas, hasn't always been good for journalism. Yellow journalism and pandering, dishonest circulation wars are just two examples of what these defenders of freedom will do on the way to the often seemingly all too easy sale of their ideas and soul.
Money hasn't been all bad for journalism. It was the economics of market diversity that drove the early wire services to strive for what would pass as objectivity. This professional objective did more to lift the news business out of the murk of diarists and pamphleteers as it has ever been. Money enables enterprise; reporting and otherwise. It has always been about what people were willing to pay.
By the way, working this out will take off significant pressure in the economic struggle over intellectual property rights. ¶ 12/26/2008 03:33:00 PM
