Sadly it has come to this: The Dora the Explorer folks are smarter than Time Magazine’s Walter Isaacson.
In the paltry 56-page Time this week, Isaacson, its former managing editor, argues that the way to save your newspaper is to start a micropayment system on the content we surf. Hardly an original thought, considering another Time writer argued the same iTunes-like model a couple of weeks back, and I took him to task as well.
Thankfully, this micropayment idea will go nowhere, for several reasons. Chiefly, iTunes works because U2’s version of Sunday Bloody Sunday is unique, not a commodity such as news reporting on a presidential innauguration. Also, paying 99 cents for the tune also allows for portability for non-internet use. Let’s not forget other music service such as Pandora are thriving by allowing access to their music without a micropayment or 99-cent download system.
What’s interesting is how quickly Isaacson breezes past the glaring fact that we pay upwards of $5o a month for broadband
access to Time.com content — and Time receives none of it. For his treatise to have any credibility, Isaacson needed to call out his counterparts at Time Warner Cable, who last month agreed to pay Viacom additional fees from 13 million cable television subscribers to show content such as Dora the Explorer.
If they are paying for Dora content, why not for Time.com from the $34.95 monthly broadband fee collected by Time Warner’s Roadrunner broadband service?
Fear not Walter, there’s a much simpler way to save major newspapers and media publishers. It will cost about 5 minutes of HTML work and a tap on the shoulder of your favorite Time.com operations webmaster.
Simply block the major ISPs from accessing your content unless they pay a fee from all the money they are already collecting from us. A simple HTML page that says “Unfortunately, you cannot access Time.com because your internet provider does not participate in the Time Media Network. Here’s the phone number and e-mail of your provider to contact for more information.”
When all major media players start doing this, you’ll get your share.
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