[ClickZ] What Price Content? [1]….

[ClickZ] What Price Content?. “The result when the difference between the sellers’ and the buyers’ prices is too vast? A malfunctioning market. Like the online periodical market targeting consumers. Like their music industry counterparts, periodical publishers view the Web as both cannibal and kitchen. Publishers worry placing content online will cannibalize their print sales, yet hope to use the Web to cook up profitable new ways to distribute content. […]

Because the Internet provides access to a greater supply of periodical information, most for free, economic theory dictates publishers should drop prices to near what buyers will pay. Instead, many publishers say the solution is for all online publishers to charge the price they want. Cut off the free supply. Consumers will be forced to pay those amounts. Others believe consumers must be “educated” into paying.

Unrealistic, wishful thinking. The economics of periodical publishing changed forever with online content distribution. Traditional pricing was based on paper print and distribution costs, usually subsidized by advertising. Web distribution eliminates printing costs and radically reduces the cost of distribution. It’s created a greater content supply. Publishers can like those facts or not. It’s reality.” [The End of Free]