PCWorld - Paid content is the best hope of saving "the media" as we know it. The problem is killing all the free content first, or alternatively, breeding a new generation that understands content is often worth precisely what it costs you.
Some will read this as an "old media" guy waxing for the good ol' days of newspapers with 30-percent margins. Or think I am channeling Barry Diller or Rupert Murdoch; a couple of other old media guys who believe paid content is their future.
But Barry, Rupert, and I know two things that media consumers may not realize:
1. The model of advertising supporting free or low-cost content is absolutely broken.
2. Quality content costs money and, in general, isn't created by part-timers or hobbyists.
Somebody has to pay for content, and it will be the consumers. It always has been, but the ability to hide the cost of information and entertainment in the selling price of essentially all other goods and services has suddenly disappeared.
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