"Premium" service won't work (was: Question for Clay and others)

[Andy Armstrong]

Russell Turpin wrote:
> 
> In my opinion, Web publications will not survive on the model
> of charging for premium service. Salon is now trying this,
> practically begging its readers to pay up for a premium
> service that exclusively serves some of its juicier articles
> and graphics. I'm a big fan of Salon. I read it every day.
> But what am I supposed to do? Give my credit card to them,
> Slashdot, and three or four other Web publications? Thanks,
> but no. That's too many charges to track and manage.
> 
> I'd be happy to pay $40 a year to subsidize my favorite Web
> publications. But not $10 four times. In other words, it's
> the hassle, not the money. There's a big play for anyone who
> can figure out how to eliminate the friction. And for
> consumers, it has to eliminate the friction for *all* the
> premium content for which they pay. Until then, I think
> individual publications are spinning their wheels trying to
> come up with a pay model.

A mechanism must surely already exist under which you can pay to
periodically top up a shared account which is then debited by various
micropayments to premium content site et al. I'd have thought the pron
mongers would have invented such a thing if a vacuum had existed...

-- 
Andy Armstrong, Tagish