Journalism needs to be entrepreneurial. And that means taking risks. And challenging your assumptions. #
There seems to be a resolution that "micropayments" don't work.#
I don't like the term either, because I was thinking of giving them large amounts of money. I like to splurge. I like making impulse purchases. I like voting with dollars, but...#
As a user, I don't trust subscriptions. It's incredibly hard to change your mind. How many times have you found out that you have to jump through endless hoops to cancel a subscription. #
Anyway, every time I try to start a discussion about this, the users agree, and the journalists that show up tell me why they don't have to to listen to scum like me. It really feels like that. #
They have to take chances. That's the way of business. And money and business are kind of the same thing. #
The biggest chance they have to take is recognizing that their users are sentient and smart and are good people who they are not treating very well. #
PS: This started as an email to my friend Jeff Jarvis, but I could hear myself saying -- why are you saying this just to him, say it to the world. #
You know those obnoxious sites that pop up dialogs when they think you're about to leave, asking you to subscribe to their email newsletter? Well that won't do for Scripting News readers who are a discerning lot, very loyal, but that wouldn't last long if I did rude stuff like that. So here I am at the bottom of the page quietly encouraging you to sign up for the nightly email. It's got everything from the previous day on Scripting, plus the contents of the linkblog and who knows what else we'll get in there. People really love it. I wish I had done it sooner. And every email has an unsub link so if you want to get out, you can, easily -- no questions asked, and no follow-ups. Go ahead and do it, you won't be sorry! :-)