I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
On Monday I wrote about a New York Times reporter who argued that online news sources should stop giving away their content for free. I said that sounded like a hard sell, but now I know it for sure. Today’s generation of kids will never pay for newspapers or online media when they grow up. How do we know? Facebook.
Josh Benton, director of the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University, wrote Monday about a visit he paid to a bunch of well-heeled high school kids in Ohio. He asked the kids about their use of Facebook, and they all said they were completely addicted, spending at least an hour a day on the social networking site, connecting from their laptops, phones, school computers. And then he asked them if they’d be willing to pay $10 a month for the service.
They all said no. They wouldn’t pay a thing. Because if Facebook charged money, they’d go back to MySpace or use another free service they were sure would emerge to take Facebook’s place. This freaked Benton out:
So, I ask you: If these kids aren’t willing to pay for Facebook — something they engage with every single day, something they love, something they have already invested countless hours into to build up a network of friends and apps and what have you — what’s the chance they’re ever going to pay half a penny to read a news story?
To me, what those kids are telling us is that the barrier to charging even small sums is extremely high online — and it’s higher the younger you are. If you’ve grown up in a free online environment, paying for digital content isn’t just a pain — it’s unthinkable. … The masses aren’t going to pay for anything.
So … yeah. Why don’t we all take a few minutes to let that sink in.
