Recently, traditional media companies and newspaper publishers such as News Corporation and The Guardian have proposed to charge ‘micropayments’ for their online news content. But TechCrunch’s Robin Wauters says micropayments or ‘retreating behind paywalls’ won’t save journalism.

Apparently The Guardian is proposing a scheme whereby readers will deposit funds in a Google account in return for downloading a cookie to their PCs which, in turn, will allow them access to various news sites. Google will, in turn, forward the account monies (less their fee) to online news publishers. Or something along those lines.

I’m not sure Google really wants to become the traditional news media’s payment processor. Maybe it does if there’s money in it. But Robin Wauters questions whether consumers are really going to welcome (and pay for) such a model.

Not when they have the ability to get their news from the growing number of free online news blogs and other news sites. TechCrunch being among them.

Robin Wauters quotes Marshall W. Van A. Van Alstyne, associate professor in the Information Systems department at Boston University and a research scholar at M.I.T, who says the following in relation to a micropayment model:

“Putting micropayments on news is like putting tollbooths on an open ocean. Internet users, awash in a sea of information, will avoid new barriers by navigating around them. And frankly, the interests of a free society are rarely served by building barriers between the people and their news.”

Will the traditional news publishers actually accelerate their decline by charging for content that is available elsewhere for free? Or will consumers remain loyal to these news institutions and embrace the micropayment model?

I actually think the micropayment model has merit… but not for ‘commodity’ information. So, unless traditional media truly provides something that is differentiated and of greater value than that available elsewhere, charging for content probably won’t work.

Source: Robin Wauters, “There We Go Again. No, Micropayments Won’t ‘Save Journalism’,” TechCrunch, May 18, 2009

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