Drunk on Free Love
In the pursuit of a new model for news media, micro-charging readers for content seems like a grand idea. But what happens when those readers, who are so used to receiving content for free, can’t come to terms with actually having to pay for it? Add to this the dwindling number of advertisers due to recession induced budget cuts and it becomes clear that the publishing industry is standing on a slippery slope.
This “Trend Snack” is part of a series that will be published in the 2010 Flux Trend Review – due in bookstores in October 2009. Register for a newsletter on our homepage to receive more information on the 2010 trend review.
The war for the almost saturated attention of consumers has resulted in news publications merrily giving away free love to attract readers. A study done by Pew Research Center found that 2008 was the tipping point for print media as more people in the U.S got their news online for free than by paying for newspapers and magazines. According to Trendwatching, there are over 1,678,545 sites that offer free news and by the end of 2008 there were free newspapers in 58 countries with a daily readership of over 70 million readers.
Savvy consumers are realising that free no longer means inferior quality and younger generations, who see charging for web content as ‘evil’, are growing up expecting an increasing number of goods and services to be free. The explosion of ‘try before you buy’ marketing has made consumers doubt the benefits of buying at all. It makes no sense, for example, to pay for a New York Times subscription when the entire paper can be delivered to your inbox for free every morning with additional breaking news headlines delivered as they occur.
The plan to entice newsreaders with a bit of free content seems to be the Achilles heel of the publishing industry. With the help of various online tools, more consumers are becoming producers of free news themselves and they are expecting the same free for all model from news organisations. Walter Isaacson, in his article entitled How to Save Your Newspaper, which appeared in a March issue of TIME, points out that cellphone companies got it right by charging people to send text messages without complaint, as did Apple, by charging people for songs through the iTunes store.
Isaacson believes that if the payment procedure for getting news online was quick and easy enough to use, most people wouldn’t mind paying for content. He proposes that newspapers look beyond monthly subscription options to offer readers the chance to impulsively purchase individual articles at low costs. A micropayment system would, according to Isaacson, result in the creation of quality content that readers see value in paying for. Such a system would enforce discipline on journalists to serve their readers rather than relying on advertising revenue.
Beyond the realm of print media, free love is spreading. The open source software movement has inspired initiatives like Mark Shuttleworth’s Ubuntu free operating system software and social media sites like Twitter and Facebook to give their users a free medium to share and access information. Even offline, companies are handing out freebies left, right and center with Wimpy’s free coffee on voting day and Ben & Jerry’s free ice-cream cone day providing examples of how giving free love is becoming an essential part of doing business.
Trend snack by Sarah Badat
