Barn Door View

The question of the moment is how to get people to pay for news. But everyone in the news business is looking at this from the barn door. The horse is out in the field, happily eating the grass, and we're leaning in the large airy doorway looking out and talking about ways to make this thing work.

There are still some people talking about getting the horse back in the barn. But the general conclusion is that the ways that will work leave the horse in the field. And the freemium idea, as described on Techcrunch by Erick Schonfeld, or Doc Searl's Emancipay, is the idea that seems to have caught the most attention.

The idea has been around for centuries, but it suits an environment where mass production and delivery cost are cheap. Think of your own use of a tool like the iPhone. When you first get one you swear you'll only use the free apps. But once you've got into the idea of using them you start buying. The same with software, or cloud applications like Flickr or Wordpress. If you like them, before you know it, you're paying for them.

Going back to the barn analogy for media: Forget all the trouble of making hay and hauling it into the barn for the horse. Grow the grass, let the horse eat it in the field and come into the barn of his own accord.

The barn still has value, because the horse likes to be there. You keep a bucket of oats for him to eat in the barn and focus on keeping the grass growing in the field and it'll be a healthy happy horse that walks into the barn, making it all worthwhile.

Ten barn door articles:

- Saving the Globe from a World of Hurt, by Doc Searls.
- Still at Newspapers I.x, also by Doc Searls.
- Chris Anderson talking about his book "The Future of a Radical Price."
- Freemium model for newspapers and other survival ideas, by Don Dodge.
- Jeff Jarvis, talking for 23 minutes: $10. Jeff writing 70,000 words: $13 by Josh Benton.
- Radio: The End is Near – Unless you heed Bob Garfield, by Mark Ramsey.
- Five tips on charging for content from Alan Murray of WSJ.com, by Zachary Seward.
- Ad Revenue on the Web? No Sure Bet, By Claire Cain Miller.
- 25 ideas: Creating An Open-Source Business Model For Newspapers, by Tom Foremski
- Out of Print, by Eric Alterman