BAD BUSINESS MODEL
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James Joyner | Sunday, October 19, 2003 |
Salon has never been my favorite of the online journals but was once worth a regular skim to find an article or two. When they went from ad based to a mostly subscriber format, that became less true it was still worth checking out from time to time. Now, they have apparently come out with a new business model: you have to watch a 20-second movie to get to even so much as the table of contents. Bye bye, Salon.
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and infant daughter.
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There is a contingent of old line media businessmen who insist on seeing the Internet as a new-fangled form of television. The business model won't transfer, but they keep trying...
So what ?
Open two browser windows, klick on Salon, read something else in window 2 while the film runs. Return to Salon
Where's the problem ?
KHR
About 10 years ago tacked a quote up on the wall at my office. It said "The key to success in the future will NOT be finding information. The key to success in the future will be learning what information to ignore."
If you doubt the speaker had his act together a decade ago, think google.
My point is that we have bazillions of data streams available to us. Why on earth would people pick the one that annoys them?
khr,
Not to mention that the vast majority of Internet users are still on dial-up. Downloading a 20-second movie clip can take forever. Plus, the movie presumably comes with sound, which you'll have to endure or go through the trouble of shutting off the speakers. Me, I'll just read one of the other dozens of sources that don't make me go through all that.
James,
I never go to Salon unless I am following a link, so I don't know how this normally works... But I just followed your link above and saw the ad trying to get me to watch the movie. I then lopped the other stuff off the URL and just went to http://www.salon.com.
From there I can pull up any article I want.
How did you get tossed to the ad?
It *looks* like I get my "day pass" by simply looking at the ad and not the movie. If that is so, their security matches the rest of their content.
P
They've been doing some sort of ad-based day pass for a year or so now (their clip is running in the other window).
I have less criticism of Salon than almost anybody else. They've brought news that the rest of the media didn't want to print (the GOP lies behind the Clinton scandals).
Yeah I guess Clinton really told the truth! (some people will believe anything)
Anyway James you can get past the movie. Apparently your cookie is set when you go to the ad page. You never have to watch the movie. (deep link test.)
I went to a different machine and the deep link worked. Their security is about as good as their reasoning.
You guys are overlooking something good here.
The ad is 20 seconds - so what. Then you have total access to Salon articles, many of which were not available previously without a prescription.
I know--off topic:
James, did you ever declare a winner in the Three Dwarves OTB Caption Contest?
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