Speaking Of Subscription Models...
from the bad-bad-idea dept
Since today seems to be "speaking of subscription model..." day, I'm going to go on a quick little rant here. I just started reading an article at MIT's Tech Review about Handhelds of Tomorrow. I like MIT's Tech Review. They usually have pretty good articles. A few years ago, someone from Tech Review emailed me and said how much everyone at Tech Review liked Techdirt and asked (politely) if I would include a link to Tech Review on my list of links at the bottom of the page. I did, because it always was a good read. Today, however, I'm reading this article... and when I get to the bottom the "continue" option leads to a page telling me I need to pay to read the rest of the article. Nowhere on the first page did they tell me that the part of the article they were showing me was just a teaser to get me to cough up some money. They just let you get a bit of the way into the article and then say "ha ha, pay up!". This doesn't make me feel particularly kind towards MIT's Tech Review any more. It makes me feel cheated. Besides, if they're going to charge for content, they should at least charge on an article that hasn't already been written by almost every other (free) publication out there.
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Will businesses even like a pay per use model?
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Re: Will businesses even like a pay per use model?
You can see this happening now with GPRS services for cell phones. Providers started out with per/KB charges, but are now switching to bucket plans based on consumer demand.
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MIT Goes Pay-per-view
While I have nothing against this - I do think good stuff is worth paying for - it did seem a bit ironic considering the article's content.
The article can be found at:
http://www.techreview.com/articles/jenkins0302.asp
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Tech Review not so sneaky
>was just a teaser to get me to cough up some
>money.
Actually, the top right corner says "premium content" and if you hover over it, explains that the aricle is free only for subscribers.
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