> Subscriptions to the NYT, WSJ, Economist and the FT would cost a fortune, and I would read a minute fraction of the content. As a result I don't have subscriptions for any of them, and none of them get a penny from me.
I would question whether that is actually the economically rational choice. Even if you read only a fraction of the content, the value you receive from the fraction you do read may still justify the cost. You probably only watch a fraction of all videos on Netflix yet still don't mind paying for it.
Also, there is a positive value in supporting a journalistic institution because you also derive benefit from other people reading their articles because it means you get to live in a better-informed world.
Either way...
> With a common system, paid with a single click per article, I and many others would happily rack up significant tallies reading individual articles across all these publications. It's a win/win.
Now you're talking micropayments[0]. People have also been trying those startups since the 90s. They have basically all failed. There is Twitch Bits, I guess, but I don't know how often that's used or whether I'd call the kinds of content that Twitch's structure incentivizes to be a good thing.
Not all problems can be solved with technology. Or, at least, with technology that only works if you assume that humans are rationally economical spherical actors in a vacuum.
I would question whether that is actually the economically rational choice. Even if you read only a fraction of the content, the value you receive from the fraction you do read may still justify the cost. You probably only watch a fraction of all videos on Netflix yet still don't mind paying for it.
Also, there is a positive value in supporting a journalistic institution because you also derive benefit from other people reading their articles because it means you get to live in a better-informed world.
Either way...
> With a common system, paid with a single click per article, I and many others would happily rack up significant tallies reading individual articles across all these publications. It's a win/win.
Now you're talking micropayments[0]. People have also been trying those startups since the 90s. They have basically all failed. There is Twitch Bits, I guess, but I don't know how often that's used or whether I'd call the kinds of content that Twitch's structure incentivizes to be a good thing.
Not all problems can be solved with technology. Or, at least, with technology that only works if you assume that humans are rationally economical spherical actors in a vacuum.
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micropayment