{"id":2681,"date":"2013-03-27T02:35:39","date_gmt":"2013-03-27T07:35:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/?p=2681"},"modified":"2013-03-27T02:35:40","modified_gmt":"2013-03-27T07:35:40","slug":"paywalls-arent-bad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/archives\/2013\/03\/27\/paywalls-arent-bad","title":{"rendered":"Paywalls aren’t bad"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Color!\"<\/a>The New York Times paywall has become less<\/a> porous. The idea of reading free content is going away and I think this is great for content producers.<\/p>\n

I didn’t start paying for the New York Times till sometime last year, and I didn’t start paying for the Financial Times till sometime this year and the reason is simple: their paywalls were rather porous. 20 articles a month with free headlines, the ability to click from social media, etc.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I love the two publications above and wanted to read it on the go. This is where the subscriptions started making more sense. Believe it or not, I like the physical paper better and do get it at most hotels that I stay at, but for those periods that I don’t, I crave for it. Hence the subscriptions to both.<\/p>\n

Monthly\/yearly payment options<\/a> are being tried out by Andrew Sullivan.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This Week in Startups<\/a> has the concept of a producer to keep the show alive. This idea isn’t new though – it was probably conceived by Adam Curry on the No Agenda Show<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Let’s not forget all sites that carry PayPal tip jar’s.<\/p>\n

Why do I think its great for NYTimes\/FT\/etc. to start charging? Because its clear good quality content cannot be provided for and be created for free.<\/p>\n

Once Netizens begin to start paying for content from these major players, it will help them understand that they have to pay for content for smaller\/niche players. Call this conditioning<\/strong>. It can only mean that more people will enjoy paying for Byliner<\/a> or Hacker Monthly<\/a>\u00a0or The Magazine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Of course there’s no perfect login solution today. When I find a link from Twitter on my mobile that goes to Malaysiakini (which I also happily pay for), I see a paywall. I know I can head to The Malaysian Insider to find the same news without login details. I expect authentication technology will improve in the near future.<\/p>\n

Overall, this is an exciting space to be in these days. Publishing is changing right in front of our eyes with a long-term view on being sustainable.<\/p>\n

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