Micropayments has been on everyone’s mind since the newspaper industry is slowly dying. When newspapers hopped on to the internet bandwagon things started to change. More people chose to read the information online rather than pay for the subscription, which seems like a no brainer. Why pay when you can get it for free? When ad revenues from the website weren’t doing as well as they thought they would do, some people propose that the information come with a cost – micropayments.
What are micropayments?
Micropayments according to Michael Knisley from his article You Can’t Sell News by the Slice, “are systems that make it easy to pay small amounts of money. (Your subway card is an example.) You could pay a nickel to read an article, or a dime for a whole day’s newspaper.” This is a concept we are all familiar with from metro cards to iTunes. But we are not familiar with this concept when it comes to getting our news. News is something we have all become accustomed to as being free. We can watch it on the TV, listen to it on the radio, and read it on the internet.
Some Think Micropayments are the answer
Some people like Walter Isaacson author of Time’s article How to Save Your Newspaper think that micropayments are the solution to the dying newspaper industry. He argues that newspapers are getting more readers than ever before with the news on the internet, but subscription continues to go down because the information is being given for free. These people argue that the public has paid for its information in the past. People used to have to buy the newspaper to read about the information from the day. Now when people are forced to pay, what is all the fuss about? Isaacon also argues that because that the information is free, he doesn’t want to see content diminish. He states, “charging for content forces discipline on journalist.”
And some don’t…
Michael Kinsley, wrote a Op-Ed piece in The New York Times called You Can’t Sell News by the Slice, responding the the pro-micropayments movement. He states that the only reason we have paid for the news in the past (newspapers) was because we were paying for the paper that the content is printed on. The paper the news is printed on as well as ink costs the paper money. He argues that this would be the first time that readers would have to pay for the content of the paper. He also contends that the internet has increased newspaper competition because Americans can access all English speaking newspapers, which includes papers in different countries. America no longer has a monopoly on its newspaper industry. Another problem with charging for the news is that news is only news because it is timely. Marshall W. Van Alstyen, associate professor in the Information Systems department at BU and research scholar at M.I.T wrote, “News is not like an iTunes song; it’s perishable. Today’s front page is tomorrow’s fish wrap, and we don’t need to replay it.”
What I think
I agree with Kinsley and especially Alstyen, he makes a very good point there is no value in purchasing news. It is a waste of money because it is not reusable. I think other people will be reluctant as well to pay for their news. People have become used to not paying, therefore they will find a way around it, if it is instated. Even though there is iTunes and it has a successful micropayment system, many people still find there way around the system. People get their music for free on programs like Limewire and Acquisition. I think we should be celebrating the fact that more people than ever have easy access to the news and are willing to read it. Making readers pay for stories will decrease the number of readers who look at the same story covered by a different newspaper. Alstyen said, “A reader benefits more from a second source than repetition from the first.” Therefore it would not be beneficial to have people buy one story that they would read over instead of getting a different perspective on it. Overall, our democracy is based on a well informed public. If micropayments decrease the number of people who have access to becoming informed it could be a detriment to our democracy. Micropayments for something that should be allowed to the people free of cost is ridiculous.
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