Yes! Journalism can be saved with Micropayments

This is a response to Techcrunch’s post:
There We Go Again. No, Micropayments Won’t “Save Journalism”.

Although Micropayments aren’t the solution, I do think they are part of it. When iTunes broke-through it weren’t the Micropayments which made that business model possible, but the iTunes store + iPod + record labels agreement combo. Apple made it easy for everyone to get a song.

Now, what the newspapers have to do is create content worth paying for, and make the payment and distribution so easy that it isn’t convenient to go elsewhere looking for it.

For example, if I had the option to easily browse through the articles, pay for the ones I want to read and get add-ons such as:

  • Audio version: To listen in my iPod.
  • Platform for discussion: What if each article had an identifiable #hashtag in Twitter so that I could follow the discussion?
  • Recommendations: different points of view, related articles in the same newspaper or articles recommended by the authors (ie. further reading).
  • Portable version: Similarly as iTunes, make the article available and easily accessible from devices such as the Kindle, iPhone, Android.

I would definitely love paying for it!

If the newspapers change their model to something like this, I think the ones that generate good content and are considered as trustworthy sources will not only survive, but be very profitable.

One Reply to “Yes! Journalism can be saved with Micropayments”

  1. Agree with you.
    They just have to package it and improve digital sources, as audio and video news.
    They are cheaper as well.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *