[0]

Rex Hammock, who knows a thing or two about publishing, has not got much time for the ‘big names in consumer maganizes’ that are still sitting in a room discussing how they can get their readers to pay for online content.

Ann Moore, CEO of Time Inc., says, “Find the market and they’ll pay.” (Huh? Where? Like at Wal-Mart?) And then they discuss how users can renew subscriptions online. I hope these people aren’t as clueless as the story by Jon Friedman of CBS.Marketwatch.com makes them sound.

...

How sad is it that a few days after Google announces it generated almost $1 billion in online advertising revenue in one quarter that these guys are talking about renewing subscriptions online?

Yes, content has to be paid for but your readers are already paying you with their attention, which is a scarce commodity nowadays. Does that mean advertising? Not necessarily, although Google is doing just fine from advertising, thank you very much. The web is about diffusion of information and as long as you have something to distribute, the value will not disappear. The publishing business seems to be particularly vulnerable to the spread of online self-publishing. On the other hand, Rex does not seem to be scared…