The future of free

So Seth Godin disagrees with Malcolm Gladwell who disagrees with Chris Anderson about the future and sustainability of free.

I know the world is thinking, “I wonder what Farhan is thinking?” I kid, I kid.

I think they’re all right. Free can and will work for a lot of publishers and content providers. But charging will work for other content providers. I think it’s about value and distribution.

The WSJ provides more value then a lot of Newspapers. So too does the FT and even the Economist. They provide commentary on the latest issues and provide great content. People will be willing to pay for this content. The prices may come down, as the costs come down, but the business model can and will remain charging for content for these publishers.

I think the daily news – from a purely information perspective – will become free. In London the Sun is 20p and the Evening Standard starts selling for 10p later in the evening. The value of the content from these providers is minimal so this should and will, I believe, approach and eventually become free. Using some form of advertising as a business model.

Jason Jones on “The Daily Show” nailed this on the head, when he went to meet some of the people at the NYT, where he made the salient point that nothing in the paper happened today (video below). It’s yesterday’s news. people will want today’s news and the best channel for this is online.

The really valuable content, the content that won’t become free, will be the analysis, the interpretation, the realisation of what the news actually means. This is the stuff that people will always pay for in print and online.

I think the publishers realise this. This is why the WSJ has always charged for a majority of their content and why websites like the Guardian, the Independent, telegraph etc have always kept their content free.

The daily newspapers should focus their editorial and writing chops on providing more of this high value content and charging subscription fees for this – moving from reporting the news to more analysis.

As I’ve written before going from free to charging for content is difficult if not impossible. But content owners know what stuff people will pay for and what content consumers won’t. Free is the future, but not for everyone.

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