Bob Wyman for Congress (NY CD-10)

What if there is literally no profitable model for digital news? Or none that actually scales and endures without, say, the established readership base and brand of the NYT. This seems...increasingly likely to me?

After Gutenberg it took a century for a new normal to arise. We are at the year 1475. This will take time. And pain.

Luckily we don't have to wait that long. The only profitable model is consumer revenue. Achieving that needs 2 things. A mechanism that lowers barriers to match the casual and uncommitted behaviour of consumers. And a product worth paying for. The first part is built and launched

Don't fool yourself. Not *every* publication is worth paying for. In fact, these days, few are.

No they're not, because they're optimised for something other than pleasing their users (low cost and maximisation of traffic). Once the consumer drives the revenue the product has to evolve or die. Some will do the former, some the latter and loads of new ones will emerge...

There is a limited pool of consumer money and an unlimited pool of competition for the title of "good enough," which drives down prices for everyone. Pay walls are no panacea.

What limits the pool of consumer money? I understand this argument better in a subscription or super-subscription environment...

The marketplace limits the pool of money. There's only so much I'm going to spend on "content". I added up every pay wall I hit with stories I wanted to read for two weeks. Annual cost: $3,600. NFW