Yet another model for paid content

The debate over pay models continues.

Today it is Steve Outing who writes over in Editor and Publisher that the micropayment model wont work.

His repsonse follows Walter Issacson's piece in Time and according to Steve

If the newspaper industry takes Isaacson's advice, then anyone who still works at newspapers should panic

He comes up with another model though from a model that he learned about recently from a California start-up venture called Kachingle.

Publishers, he says, have to get over the idea that they are going to get paid directly by the user. Instead

Newspapers probably can charge for some multi-platform personalized news and information services, if they're good enough and useful enough. But that's not charging for the content (the news), it's charging for the valuable service of individual customization.

So here is the concept

Just as online users currently pay an Internet provider $30 or more a month for their computers to access the Internet, and perhaps a monthly fee for all the music they want from a service like Rhapsody, they'll also pay a monthly fee for all the news and blog content on the Web. Only the last fee is voluntary, and it will be up to publishers to educate the public on the importance of paying for content online