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End Of The Free Content Ride

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Adrian Roselli

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User since: 14 Dec 1998

Articles written: 85

With the boon of the web a few years ago, sites competed with one another by acting like portals, trying to see who could post the most news and otherwise free content possible to keep people coming back. As the portal model has fallen away, and the 'net economy has tightened up, it seems some formerly free sources of information are starting to expect something in return.

Jupiter Media Metrix claims that 42% of online adults are willing to pay for content, down from 45% in August of 2000. However, there are some murmurings that the industry might be moving away from free content regardless.

CNN's decision to phase out free video clips on its new, sports, and financial sites is just one example, following ABC News' example. RealNetworks is selling a SuperPass with a monthly price tag that allows access to multimedia from ABC News, Fox Sports, NASCAR, and even pro baseball and basketball, and they've already garnered some 500,000 subscribers. Salon magazine made that move last year, moving much of its content to a premium service.

Jupiter's report suggests that paid online content will grow to a $5.8 billion industry by 2006, up from $1.4 billion in 2002. They attribute the expected growth to widespread access to broadband, as well as people just buying into the model of paying for much of their content online.

Of course, free doesn't always mean money. More and more sites are requiring registration to access content, making users decide if their personal information is a fair trade. This customer information is a form of currency you can see in places like download.com, where they now require registration to download software.

Recent news pieces:

A founder of evolt.org, Adrian Roselli (aardvark) is the Senior Usability Engineer at Algonquin Studios, located in Buffalo, New York.

Adrian has years of experience in graphic design, web design and multimedia design, as well as extensive experience in internet commerce and interface design and usability. He has been developing for the World Wide Web since its inception, and working the design field since 1993. Adrian is a founding member, board member, and writer to evolt.org. In addition, Adrian sits on the Digital Media Advisory Committee for a local SUNY college and a local private college, as well as the board for a local charter school.

You can see his brand-spanking-new blog at http://blog.adrianroselli.com/ as well as his new web site to promote his writing and speaking at AdrianRoselli.com

Adrian authored the usability case study for evolt.org in Usability: The Site Speaks for Itself, published by glasshaus. He has written three chapters for the book Professional Web Graphics for Non Designers, also published by glasshaus. Adrian also managed to get a couple chapters written (and published) for The Web Professional's Handbook before glasshaus went under. They were really quite good. You should have bought more of the books.

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evolt.org Evolt.org is an all-volunteer resource for web developers made up of a discussion list, a browser archive, and member-submitted articles. This article is the property of its author, please do not redistribute or use elsewhere without checking with the author.