The debate over the future of journalism takes place across a philosophical divide. On one side is the crowd that says the news wants to be free. On the other is the crowd that says so do the chickens, but if we free them we run out of eggs.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
So I think consumers will pay in the end, and I think fairly painless ways will be found to take their money. We’ve been hearing a lot recently about the idea of putting editorial content behind a firewall and charging micropayments to breach it. Bad idea. No one likes to be nickeled and dimed. Pay even a penny to visit a site that turns out to be a waste of time and if you’re anything like me you’ll sulk for the rest of the day.
My small contribution to the town hall debate was to sing the praises of a new online venture called Kachingle. It was a case of love of first sight—I’d heard of Kachingle only a few days earlier—and what won my heart was the premise that the public will pay for news if the paying is not merely easy but exalting. Kachingle is the first idea I’ve seen that’s psychologically astute. Why do I walk around with a membership card to the Art Institute in my wallet that I rarely use? It’s because every time I do go to the Art Institute I get to strut in for “nothing,” and because the face in the mirror belongs to a credentialed patron of the arts.
When Typaldos, a California-based social networking expert, told me more about Kachingle, it turned out she was miles ahead of me in working out the psychology of it. She’s applying the lesson known to every busker, which is that bystanders become much more willing to drop coins into your hat if they see other coins already there.
The Chi-Town Daily News focuses on those local affairs—City Colleges board meetings and the like—that even the dailies have marginalized. Without any of the bells and the whistles, I later asked Dougherty, what will attract the public to your worthy, glamorless reporting?
Care to comment? Find this column at chicagoreader.com. And for more on the media, see Michael Miner’s blog, News Bites.
