Reverse Digital Media Pay Walls - No Way, You Pay Me, Bring It

As print media dies the death of a thousand needles, one has to ask if the merging of print and digital content is the proper and only long-term solutions, aka "if you can't beat them, join them" and yes, I for one wonder all this, but I still question this reality for the print media. We've watched many of the most well respected newspapers in our nation attempt to combine their print news desks with their digital editions. For some this has worked for others, not so well. Okay, let's look at some of the latest strategies going on in this new blurred reality of news shall we?

Now then, GIGOM (dot) had a cool article recently on March 26, 2012 titled; "Don't build a pay wall, create a velvet rope instead," by Mathew Ingram which told of a new concept to help print publications survive in the digital information world. Okay so, you know how many print publications charge you for digital versions of their articles, well, they call this a "pay wall" which means you, the reader, has to pay if you want that information to read.

Well now some publications are paying the reader to read their articles, and yes, the advertising too, which means more guaranteed readers for their advertisers and a way to account for who read what. This makes sense, as the news media outlet pays their readers to view their content, perhaps trading them for free-coupons from their top advertisers. The readers thus, read more online content, and the advertisers get important data of things such as; exact demographic data of who is reading their ads and what type of content their customers most prefer.

All of this data means that the targeted ads are much more effective, therefore worth more to the company placing the ads, and a higher price point for the media outlet, thus more money to split with the reader. Actually, a lot more money can be made this way than charging subscribers for the privilege of reading their content. So, this newest idea is quite wise, and thanks to big data and all the latest marketing tools, along with social networks, this could be an advertisers dream come true and actually save this hybrid business model preventing big bankruptcies in the print media.

More money to the news outlets also means better reporting, coverage, and therefore, better news. Something, I bet we'd all appreciate. What's that famous line; "everyone's a winner!" Okay so, please consider all this and think on it.

Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on Interesting Internet Concepts. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net