Costly Content

from the that-all-depends... dept

An interesting article from an online content site (though it has a paper companion) about online content sites. It makes a good point: when everyone started online content sites the reason was because it had to be cheaper, since there were no paper or distribution costs. Of course, that forgets the expense of the servers and bandwidth and such to actually let people access the content. And, most importantly, because it's so easy to publish online content, anyone could do it, meaning you had to spend more on advertising. Or, so they say. No one seems to consider the idea that you could just start a content site that points people to other's content, and isn't a business, so doesn't need to make money. Then, ditch the marketing costs, and just let people find the site on their own if they like it. Perhaps we here at Techdirt are the exact model of a successful content site. I don't see us going out of business any time soon.