Windy cityMar 4

I have never come upon a paywall while casually browsing the news and thought, "Let me get my credit card out."

It's always, "I don't need to know that badly."

Show threadWill Mar 4
@pheonix @minego In a few months, my very affordable digital subscription to my local newspaper will jump to over $20 per month. It often has news I haven’t seen elsewhere, but my dude, that price seems excessive for what it is! Streaming services are almost half that.
Show threadloucoveyMar 4
@AncTreat5358 @pheonix @minego either you get your news subsidized by advertisers or by readers. Can you think of other options?
Show threadWill Mar 4

@Loucovey @pheonix @minego No it does make sense to support news. It is more of sticker shock for someone on a small fixed income that still wants to know what is going on in the community.

It’d feel better if it were still a local paper, but it’s part of a large conglomerate.

Show threadWill Mar 4
@Loucovey @pheonix @minego I wish there was an option to pay per article read instead plus overhead. I recall that was a thing a few decades ago.
Show threadStryder NotaviMar 5

@AncTreat5358 @Loucovey @pheonix @minego This.

There's too many news sites out there for subscribing to all or even most of them to be a viable option.

Let me pay per article. If you want me to consider a full subscription give me a way to see how much I've spent on articles from you to date - a subscription becomes a lot more compelling if I already know your reporting is solid.

Show threadWill Mar 5
@StryderNotavi Great idea of being able to see article purchases over time.
Show threadStryder NotaviMar 5

@AncTreat5358 A related idea would be the ability to pay a bit after reading the article to create a gift link.

Since people will want to share good reporting, the outlet benefits both monetarily and in reputation from good articles / coverage

I suspect the harder nut to crack will be administering the micropayments themselves. Presumably you'd need some intermediary where people pay into a "wallet" and can then nominate sites to pay (with the actual payments being batched to manage transaction costs).

Show threadWill 

@StryderNotavi These are great ideas. I like the suggestion paying a certain amount for gift links that will also benefit the newsfeed.

And the micropayments does sound tricky. If not done properly, they could easily lose money from the transaction fees imposed.

Mar 6 at 3:09amWeb