Free at last: the next web revolution

Edie G. Lush explains why we’re rarely asked to pay for online news and entertainment these days

Amid the shockwaves caused by Rupert Murdoch’s acquisition of Dow Jones, publisher of the Wall Street Journal, one significant policy shift attracted relatively little attention. When the ink finally dries on the deal, one of Murdoch’s first moves will be to remove the ‘pay wall’ from the Journal’s website. The news that WSJ.com will henceforth be free may come as a pleasant surprise to its many loyal users, but it isn’t so great for other entrepreneurs who are trying to make money via online subscriptions.

Whether web-based or not, businesses like subscription models because they know what revenues they’re going to get, and can match costs against them. They can bundle low-value content with high-value content, and rely on consumer apathy to increase profit margins: we’re too idle to cancel the subscriptions we rarely use, as many a gym member will confess.