Internet surfers are used to free content. They are very
reluctant to pay for information (with precious few
exceptions, like the "Wall Street Journal"'s electronic
edition). Moreover, the Internet, with 3 billion pages listed
in the Google search engine (and another 15 billion in
"invisible" databases), provides many free substitutes to
every information product, no matter how superior. Web based
media companies (such as Salon and Britannica.com) have been
experimenting with payment and pricing models. But this is
besides the point. Whether in the form of subscription
(Britannica), pay per view (Questia), pay to print (Fathom),
sample and pay to buy the physical product (RealRead), or
micropayments (Amazon) - the public refuses to cough up.
Moreover, the advertising-subsidized free content Web site has
died together with Web advertising. Geocities - a community of
free hosted, ad-supported, Web sites purchased by Yahoo! - is
now selectively shutting down Web sites (when they exceed a
certain level of traffic) to convince their owners to revert
to a monthly hosting fee model.
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