Even the companies with currently profitable paywalls (WSJ, FT, etc.) are just holdovers from the print economy. The only reason they're surviving now is that people are used to them being the dominant sources of valuable information. But it won't last.
I spend quite a bit of time reading articles on reddit, probably more than I should, but I've noticed that there are fewer linked articles behind paywalls, and when one is posted many readers immediately down vote it because it's behind paywall. Any company that locks up their content is soon going to find that while they may have increased their revenue in the short term, in the long term they've lost their relevance because their customers have found other sources for the same information.
Google, and any other company, by collecting personal information on its customers should have the fiduciary duty to protect that information at any cost. Personally, I'd prefer it if they simply anonymized their services and couldn't disclose personal information, but as long as they choose to collect it and keep it, they should have the responsibility to safeguard it.
Neil's failure to grasp the idea that the old business model no longer applies is a reason to pity him, but nothing more. The last Neil Young album I bought was on vinyl, circa 1981-82. I never bothered with his music on CDs, and when the digital era hit I just borrowed disks from friends and ripped them. I didn't see any reason then that I should have to pay him twice, or more times, for the exact same music and I still don't. If he thinks he should be paid, then he needs to get out and work, just like the rest of us.
I'm no where near the stated demographic (my youngest child is in her 20s), and there is no way I'd suggest the main stream media as a news source. The main stream media are pure entertainment with at best a slight relationship to actual local or world events. And, even where there is a relationship, it's sensationalist aspects are all that the MSM present. They don't present opposing perspectives, they never look beyond the obvious, they never think outside of the box, they never explore the relationships between one headline and another. They don't present news, they present sound bites.
Anyone, at any age, who wants "news" has to look to aggregators (I prefer reddit to digg) and shows like The Daily Show because only there will one find more than the agreed upon corporate perspective presented by the MSM, only there will one hear of the relationships between news items, and only there will one find truly opposing, or different, interpretations to those the media elite want us to have.
And, if you want a nice clean current example you don't have to look any further than the MSM defining for us just who "legitimate" presidential candidate are and then working to restrict any media coverage that might go to those candidates they didn't choose. Anyone who wants to know what's going on must ignore the MSM and go to other sources--and now we have them.
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Even the companies with currently profitable paywalls (WSJ, FT, etc.) are just holdovers from the print economy. The only reason they're surviving now is that people are used to them being the dominant sources of valuable information. But it won't last.
I spend quite a bit of time reading articles on reddit, probably more than I should, but I've noticed that there are fewer linked articles behind paywalls, and when one is posted many readers immediately down vote it because it's behind paywall. Any company that locks up their content is soon going to find that while they may have increased their revenue in the short term, in the long term they've lost their relevance because their customers have found other sources for the same information.
Google, and any other company, by collecting personal information on its customers should have the fiduciary duty to protect that information at any cost. Personally, I'd prefer it if they simply anonymized their services and couldn't disclose personal information, but as long as they choose to collect it and keep it, they should have the responsibility to safeguard it.
Neil's just showing his age
Neil's failure to grasp the idea that the old business model no longer applies is a reason to pity him, but nothing more. The last Neil Young album I bought was on vinyl, circa 1981-82. I never bothered with his music on CDs, and when the digital era hit I just borrowed disks from friends and ripped them. I didn't see any reason then that I should have to pay him twice, or more times, for the exact same music and I still don't. If he thinks he should be paid, then he needs to get out and work, just like the rest of us.
Avoid the MSM
I'm no where near the stated demographic (my youngest child is in her 20s), and there is no way I'd suggest the main stream media as a news source. The main stream media are pure entertainment with at best a slight relationship to actual local or world events. And, even where there is a relationship, it's sensationalist aspects are all that the MSM present. They don't present opposing perspectives, they never look beyond the obvious, they never think outside of the box, they never explore the relationships between one headline and another. They don't present news, they present sound bites.
Anyone, at any age, who wants "news" has to look to aggregators (I prefer reddit to digg) and shows like The Daily Show because only there will one find more than the agreed upon corporate perspective presented by the MSM, only there will one hear of the relationships between news items, and only there will one find truly opposing, or different, interpretations to those the media elite want us to have.
And, if you want a nice clean current example you don't have to look any further than the MSM defining for us just who "legitimate" presidential candidate are and then working to restrict any media coverage that might go to those candidates they didn't choose. Anyone who wants to know what's going on must ignore the MSM and go to other sources--and now we have them.