| From: Russell via talk <talk@gtalug.org> | It's a somber fact of modern publishing that, as the cost of delivering | written content goes down, so does the monitary value of that content.
That is an interesting second-order effect. For one thing, it's not that the unit cost has gone down. It's that the cost of getting in the game has gone down. Newspaper printing and distributing technologies deliver quite inexpensive copies if you are printing and distributing hundreds of thousands of copies regularly. It's hard to get in the game -- look what it cost Conrad Black to create the Post newspapers. With competition as it was in the newspaper business a decade or more ago, there was an auction for good writers. The quality of the product went up. But it was an unsustainable war and the collapse is happening now. The cost of putting up a web site is minor. Lots of folks aspire to be writers so will generate content for peanuts. It's a race to the bottom. Eyeballs are in short supply. What we need is more discerning readers. Ones who will pay for good content (and lack of bad content!). Or otherwise reward. I haven't put my money where my mouth is. For example, LWN.net seems deserving but I haven't thrown any money their way. But I do value the Globe and Mail and do subscribe. --- Talk Mailing List talk@gtalug.org https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk