How to Save Your Newspaper

A person who wants one day’s edition of a newspaper or is enticed by a link to an interesting article is rarely going to go through the cost and hassle of signing up for a subscription under today’s clunky payment systems. The key to attracting online revenue, I think, is to come up with an iTunes-easy method of micropayment. We need something like digital coins or an E-ZPass digital wallet ‚Äî a one-click system with a really simple interface that will permit impulse purchases of a newspaper, magazine, article, blog or video for a penny, nickel, dime or whatever the creator chooses to charge.

Walter Isaacson erklärt How to Save Your Newspaper und bringt den Gedanken des Paid Content erneut auf – diesmal mit einem funktionierenden Micropayment.

Worauf er gar nicht eingeht: Ob in einer digitalen Welt, in der Nachrichten nicht nur überall kostenfrei verfügbar, sondern auch leicht kopierbar sind, dieses System tatsächlich funktionieren würde. (via)