Wall Street Journal Considering Micropayments
As the newspaper sector is dying and advertising is slowing down across a wide variety of media, Wall Street Journal is considering implementing a sophisticated micropayments plan to charge for individual articles on its website. WSJ site is already a premium business/financial news site and they feel that they can keep the charges high. The new system is expected to be rolled out later this year, likely in fall.
The advertising model is and probably will suffer even more in the coming years as consumers keep their wallets closed. In such a scenario, traditional and online media will need to find a different model for generating revenues. The sites that deliver value could charge for the value they offer the customers, similar to the pay per song models that have evolved for the music industry over the last few years. If the plan is successful, it would be interesting to see how WSJ is able to maintain its journalistic integrity and cover the important news of the day and not only focus on the type of news that brings the most paying customers.
What do you think? Would you pay per article if that option is available?
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