Re Getting around paywalls ...

["Dave Farber" <dave () farber net>]

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Esther Dyson <edyson () edventure com>
Date: Tue, Apr 25, 2017 at 11:18 AM
Subject: Re: [IP] Re Getting around paywalls ...
To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Cc: ip <ip () listbox com>


You could also consider Pressreader.com <http://pressreader.com> - monthly
subscription fee.  (Disclosure: I am an investor.)

Esther


On Apr 25, 2017, at 9:45 AM, Dave Farber <farber () gmail com> wrote:




Begin forwarded message:

*From:* Dan Tappan <dan.tappan () gmail com>
*Date:* April 25, 2017 at 8:06:11 AM EDT
*To:* dave () farber net, ip <ip () listbox com>
*Subject:* *Re: [IP] Re Getting around paywalls ...*


I've been calling for a micro-payments system for reading newspaper
articles for a long time. I'm all for supporting journalism, and I have
digital subscriptions to a number of publications, but asking people to pay
on the order of $200 a year to 1/2 dozen different publications is just not
reasonable. Absolute $$$ aside, by the time you get to that many
subscriptions you're just reading the occasional article from each so the
$$/article is way out of whack.

So I was excited to see the previous message about Blendle.com
<http://blendle.com/>, and now this one about Inkle.com <http://inkle.com/>.
I jumped on getting a beta account on Blendle and immediately discovered a
fatal flaw: what these sites seem to be trying to provide is a digital
aggregate magazine, a web site you can log into to find a curated set of
articles from a variety of sources.

That's cool, but it's not the way I (nor, I suspect, most) read newspaper
articles these days. Instead we find articles that look interesting through
posts on Facebook, Twitter, Feedly, click through, and hit a paywall (and
it doesn't help that when you're linking to articles though apps on an
iPhone cookies are not shared across apps - so even if you have a paid
subscription odds are that you'll have to log in again to read the article)

So the illicit way to read an article behind a paywall takes about two
steps: copy the link, open an incognito window and go to the link.

Reading the article through Blendle seems to take more steps than that:
find something that identifies the article, open a link to Blendle, search
through the publishers for the publication you want and then search
articles until you find the one you are looking for.

The only way that these are going succeed is if they can make reading an
article as easy as clicking on a link and immediately going to the article,
with an accompanying debit from your micro-payments account. Maybe this
could be done with a plugin that automatically intercepts links to
publications and turns them into links to the same article on (e.g.)Blendle.
More likely it needs some cooperation from the publisher so they can
recognize when someone has an account on a micropayments system.

But my point is that unless using these systems is _easier_ than cheating
people will end up cheating even if they would rather pay. Or they just
won't bother to read the articles which has the same effect as far as the
publisher is concerned.

A second order issue is that the prices on Blendle seem somewhat high, up
to $0.50 to read an article. Micropayment systems probably will be most
successful when the individual costs feel trivial, or when the costs are
hidden in a monthly subscription fee. Excessive a-la-carte prices are
likely to discourage use, and be self defeating.

On 4/25/17 4:02 AM, Dave Farber wrote:


---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Stephe Wilks <stephe.wilks () hepl com au>
Date: Tue, Apr 25, 2017 at 12:06 AM
Subject: RE: FW: [IP] Getting around paywalls ...
To: <farber () gmail com>
Cc: <dave () farber net>


Prof Farber  --


For many of the same reasons, I believe that using the ‘get around the
paywall’ trick is less useful for an open society with a functioning fourth
estate, than the alternatives of trying to find a way to help journalism
work effectively…


My preferred option is Inkl.com
<http://www.inkl.com/newsletters/morning-edition>, which like Blendle,
provides micropayments to the publishers while giving readers access to a
wide range of newspapers around the world…  but, uses the digital content
rather than the print version of the stories and – more importantly for me
in a world lacking diverse voices – has a feature called Dive Deeper, which
tries to bring in multiple perspectives from a range of global news sources.


I believe there are others as well – I think the important thing is that,
if you support the existence of the fourth estate, it’s important to help
find a way to fund its ongoing capability!


--  Stephe

*From:* Dave Farber [mailto:farber () gmail com]
*Sent:* Tuesday, 25 April 2017 3:13 AM
*To:* ip <ip () listbox com>
*Subject:* [IP] Getting around paywalls ...






Begin forwarded message:

*From:* Chuck McManis <chuck.mcmanis () gmail com>
*Date:* April 24, 2017 at 1:01:45 PM EDT
*To:* Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
*Cc:* ip <ip () listbox com>
*Subject:* *Getting around paywalls ...*

Roger Bohn's recent post on monopoly power included this common bit of
advice :


"Suggestion: If a newspaper is refusing to let you read an article, you can
often get it by searching for it (on Google - irony alert, see one of the
stories below), and visiting from the search result."


I am not picking on Roger, it is fairly common advice, but would like to
point out some better solutions. Sites like blendle.com which will let you
read (and pay for) single articles on the NY Times, Economist, WSJ, etc
without having to subscribe to those publications. I have no association
with Blendle other than as a satisfied customer. And unlike paywalled
version of the articles, the articles on Blendle are scanned from the
original publications and have no additional advertising or other
distractions. Money is held in escrow until you buy permanent access to an
article and doesn't evaporate if you don't use the service. There is a
generous refund policy if you feel the .19 or .09 you payed to read an
article wasn't worth it.


I understand that people enjoy reading quality journalism for free.
However, that is not sustainable and available internet advertising options
do not provide the revenue that print advertising once did. As a result,
market forces are pushing paywalls harder and harder to the point where it
will is becoming an existential choice for a publication to either enforce
a hard paywall or cease operation.


My issue with that is that while I'm happy to pay for an article out of the
NY Times (for example) I do not like to pay for access to the NY Times for
a month where I hardly read it. And that is where alternatives like Blendle
come in. They allow a publication to make sustainable amounts of revenue on
their articles, they align the publication's revenue side of the house with
the readership (we won't pay for bad articles) and editorial side.


I encourage your readership to create an account with Blendle and throw $5
or $10 into it and read the articles you want, guilt free, on these
publications. See if it meets your needs and helps us move good journalism
and 'real' news into a business model that works for the 21st century.


--Chuck


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Esther Dyson
Executive Founder, Way to Wellville
edyson () edventure com
www.hiccup.co
@WaytoWellville
Clatsop County OR
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