To understand where the money (and quality publishing) in blogs will ultimately come from, all we have to do is look back at related publishing mediums.
Newspapers - Free (or no business model) (pre 1704), Advertising (1704, The Boston News-Letter), Subscription (1893, Frank Munsey)
Radio - Free (or no business model), Advertising (1909, Charles Herrold)), Subscription (XM, Sirius)
Television - Free (or no business model), Advertising (1941), Subscription (Cable TV, HBO, DirecTV, Showtime)
Blogging - Free (or no business model), Advertising (Federated Media, Adsense), ……. ?
It’s… inevitable.
So true. Great research on the names and dates by the way, Spot-on!
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I had this concept for a long time now. Matter of fact we’ve built a platform based on that (working on it for two years now) but over the years other projects took priority and we haven’t released it, not sure if we ever will.
An interesting point(s).
Great concept, Sahar. And it was bolstered by the related dates you researched — very interesting.
The only thing you seemingly aren’t taking into account is the difference in the control of the mass media you mentioned.
For instance:
Newspapers - Run by corporations
Radio - Run by corporations
Television - Run by networks/corporations
Blogging - Run by individuals
Don’t you think that might influence the future of blogs, making their inevitable future a little less certain? Unless corporations buy out all the blogs…
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Good observation my friend.
Publishing is publishing is publishing, wether corps, small operations, or individuals. If the author (or operation) has enough credibility and appeal he can charge, and some will pay.
In the domain industry there’s a fellow name Rick Schwarz, one of the smartest guys in the business. His input and visionary view on the industry and the web in general make him THAT valuable for people to subscribe.
Take Frank Schilling at SevenMile.com - same thing. These are multi millionaires, some of the smartest guys I know where his advice again is that valuable to pay for.
Another example is Dr. John Berryhill, a leading IP attorney. He is also that good.
I have few more in mind you get the point.
But, I do see what some mean that this isn’t for every blog. What I failed to describe is the whole model I had in mind which includes a free blog with enough teasers to enter the paid blog. Think WebmasterWorld model (free forum/s+paid forum) but for blogging.
Your reasoning is very insightful. I see only one flaw: the other subscription services you mentioned (cable TV, satellite radio, newspapers) are always on, providing constant entertainment and content (except for newspapers, which generally provide enough content to keep you busy for several hours a day if you choose).
No blogger is going to be that prolific. I could see paying a subscription to a blogging network, which would give me access to dozens of valuable blogs. But not a single blog.
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It’s not about the quantity, but the quality. Just as people pay for pay per view events they will pay for premium blog content. If Frank Schilling decided to charge for premium content I bet many domainers would pay. If John Berryhill decided to charge for trademark related premium content I’m sure some would pay as well.