Time To Consider Paying For Your "Lunch", Again

Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, said to Fortune magazine recently during an interview about the survival of newspaper: "the culture of the Internet is that information wants to be free." For Google whose business goes way beyond providing information, it is a fair statement. But for news publications, such statement can be dangerously misleading.

Most content providers use free information as a tool to market themselves in order to, eventually, get noticed, get a deal for other apps, and get paid! Michael Noer, executive editor for Forbes.com, one of the very few profitable websites, said: "If I didn't want to make money, I'd go home and write a journal."

Publications that failed to do so are creating plenty problems in their tradition part of the business. Walter Isaacson, former managing editor of Time magazine, admitted in The Daily Show that "we made a mistake" to have made online news free which he thought might have pushed the print to the edge of obliteration.

However, I believe plenty of bloggers and website founders did not start disseminating free online information just to make money. Many began with a passion of the free exchange of ideas and a handful is running successfully on voluntary writers/editors and charity. But even they are worried about where to get the funding for next year. Any business needs to be able to, at least, self sustained. Worry about passion after we know where the next meal is.

The abundance of free online information is likely to, eventually, wipe out the print business. It might not be a bad thing. When that day arrives, the dynamics of news business would switch and the news websites might be able to start charging again. Call it assumption, but the Internet doesn't want to kill the print before killing itself, does it? Internet needs to charge, but in a whole new way. For example, micro-charge: an idea brought up in Isaacson's cover story: How to save your newspaper or there will be thousands of mini Googles that offer applications and services alongside content.