“Information Wants to Be Expensive”
— The quote above caught my attention the other day buried in the op-ed section of the WSJ. The gist of the article was that people are willing to pay for valuable content. That begs the question, what is worth paying for when information seemingly wants to be free? For one, local content. USA Today might not care about Brewster McCracken, but folks in Austin do. The New York Times cares too as they announced today that they are launching a local blog network. They are looking to fill the gaps left by shuttered dailies such as the Denver Rocky Mountain News. Jim Schachter, editor for digital initiatives at The New York Times, said they are experimenting with a combination of journalism, technology and advertising and looking towards non-NYT bloggers to create content. The obvious problem there is quality control, which is critical to maintaining a stalwart brand. Striking a profitable balance between quality content, costs and revenue is the top priority in print. Dean Singleton, publisher of the Denver Post (the surviving Denver daily) wryly noted, “We don’t have to let them take our content. We let them do so because it drives traffic.” I’ve got one acronym for him — TANSTAAFL.
