iNews? I Don't Know

It's clear that the news industry needs to come up with a better way to monetize content, but the pay-as-you-go model could fail miserably. Despite plummeting ad revenue in both print and online news outlets, there are more readers of news than ever before -- so we have to use that demand to make something work.

Lately industry experts have proposed applying the iTunes model to news so that readers pay for each story. That sounds to me like I will begin to hate reading the news as much as I hated text messaging when it cost me 10 cents for every text. (Read TIME's cover story about "How to Save Your Newspaper" at this free link while you still can. Also check out a discussion about monetizing newspapers on last week's On The Media episode.)

I think industry voices are on the right track with the idea that we should not be getting content for free, as much as I love free news. First of all, we know reading the news is not about a favorite news outlet anymore, so a subscription model on the Web will not work (... but good for you Wall Street Journal for being a badass and making it work). So that's led media commentators to present a pay-as-you-go model -- or paying for individual content from any news outlet you choose. However, that model will be ineffective unless it is executed somehow to reflect the new way people "read" news, which involves a lot of skimming.

I am talking about aggregation, which I haven't heard any of these preaching experts mention. Like many people, I get my news from gazillions of news outlets, but not necessarily because I subscribe to all of their newsletters. I read summaries such as Slate's Today's Papers and The Daily Beast's Cheat Sheet. I also skim the hundreds of headlines in my RSS feed in under 10 minutes.

Asking a news geek of today to pay for each story he or she reads will not work, because even people like me who soak up a ridiculous amount of news might go through a whole day without reading a single full story! Sometimes I don't even have time to read my own stories once they are published! Gasp!

I would suggest that media outlets band together to offer more aggregated content that we will pay for. I'm not sure what form that should take, of course, but I hope someone smarter figures it out, especially because I have a vested interest in the media industry making it. I hate (love) to sound like a broken record, but I just hope the Gray Lady and friends are listening to those of us who might be green but know a little something about how readers are adapting to the Web.