Comments on: Media Pay Walls and Bottled Water Lessons http://www.jeremygilbert.com/2010/01/18/424/articles/media-pay-walls-and-lessons-from-bottled-water Jeremy Gilbert teaches and practices design-centered journalism. He works at Northwestern University, lives in Chicago and designs news and information. Mon, 01 Aug 2011 14:00:41 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: SharonMenn http://www.jeremygilbert.com/2010/01/18/424/articles/media-pay-walls-and-lessons-from-bottled-water/comment-page-1#comment-36 SharonMenn Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:16:15 +0000 http://www.jeremygilbert.com/?p=424#comment-36 My generation still has the local paper delivered. It is a hard habit to break. My generation still has the local paper delivered. It is a hard habit to break.

]]> By: JeremyGilbert http://www.jeremygilbert.com/2010/01/18/424/articles/media-pay-walls-and-lessons-from-bottled-water/comment-page-1#comment-19 JeremyGilbert Thu, 21 Jan 2010 21:29:31 +0000 http://www.jeremygilbert.com/?p=424#comment-19 Bryan you make a good point -- delivery is crucial part of the equation. However rarely was the newspaper free to pick up at the printing plant, its just that what you paid barely paid for any part of the process reporting, editing, printing or delivery. But I'm not sure that years of higher subscription rates would have convinced online users to pay for news either. Bryan you make a good point — delivery is crucial part of the equation. However rarely was the newspaper free to pick up at the printing plant, its just that what you paid barely paid for any part of the process reporting, editing, printing or delivery. But I’m not sure that years of higher subscription rates would have convinced online users to pay for news either.

]]> By: Bryan Murley http://www.jeremygilbert.com/2010/01/18/424/articles/media-pay-walls-and-lessons-from-bottled-water/comment-page-1#comment-18 Bryan Murley Thu, 21 Jan 2010 19:55:35 +0000 http://www.jeremygilbert.com/?p=424#comment-18 <blockquote>In essence, news, which readers spent decades paying for and then a decade not paying for, would suddenly have a price tag again.</blockquote> Repeat after me: Readers never paid for the news. They paid for the delivery mechanism, the package. If you took away all print advertising and just tried to run a paper on current subscription and rack sales, you'd be out of business in a week. And on the internet, readers still pay for the delivery mechanism, it's just that the delivery comes through an ISP. Broadcast television news was always free to the viewer, who paid for an antenna and a receiver. Cable news has subscribers, but again, the viewer pays the distribution network, not the news provider.

In essence, news, which readers spent decades paying for and then a decade not paying for, would suddenly have a price tag again.

Repeat after me: Readers never paid for the news. They paid for the delivery mechanism, the package. If you took away all print advertising and just tried to run a paper on current subscription and rack sales, you’d be out of business in a week.

And on the internet, readers still pay for the delivery mechanism, it’s just that the delivery comes through an ISP.

Broadcast television news was always free to the viewer, who paid for an antenna and a receiver. Cable news has subscribers, but again, the viewer pays the distribution network, not the news provider.

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