Couple of interesting articles

Here are a couple of articles that link into the course.
http://whatmatters.mckinseydigital.com/the_debate_zone/will-people-pay-for-content-online

http://whatmatters.mckinseydigital.com/internet/investigative-reporting-in-the-web-era

One that I would like to discuss is about whether people will pay to view online content. Brill argues that online subscriptions and paying for indepth information is a valid model while Shirky argues otherwise. According to Shirky, the internet is so vast that if 1 person subscribes, he is going to then share that information free of charge. To him a pay per view model will not work and if access is to be paid for, then it is also hindering the spread of knowledge. Brill places a lot of emphasis on the revenues brough in by advertising. Advertisers pay according the number of individuals they think they are reaching. Sites that do turn into pay per view, will have certain niche audiences that make it easier for advertisers to market their products. Or some advertisers may pull out as they are not reaching a demographic they first thought they were.

With the uncertainty of accurately recording audiences, putting complete trust in advertising revenues is not a very good idea. Advertisers are now cutting out the middlemen. With the new movie Paranormal activity (in America), the distributors didn't have much faith in the movie so ran it free of charge at a couple of university cinemas. Students that liked the movie acted as a marketing campaign as they then suggested it to their peers. Since there was not a big budget campaign used to make this film popular, they can gather more viewers who are more likely to view the movie based on the opinions of people they trust, rather than a hyped up marketing campaign. We all know the feeling of going to a big budget film thats had so much money pumped into it, but then fails to deliver. Brill places too much importance on advertising as revenue since advertisers are now relying on peer to peer communication in order for their products to be purchased by a large group of people.

There are many more points covered in the article which makes a good read. Enjoy!!

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