Re: A Radical Thesis

From: <johnl[_at_]ibm.net>
Date: Sat Apr 13 17:10:47 1996

On 04/12/96, "Martha Luehrmann" <Martha_Luehrmann[_at_]macmail2.lbl.gov> wrote:
>>
>> the creator's compensation comes from the ability to sell the
>> user's interest.

>
> What the heck does that mean?

I did not mean to be cryptic, and that is. Sorry.

First there are many different models, and my gneralization is only applicable to some.

Currently a frequent model is that the author's compenstaion is basically a small bit of the ditribution/production costs: I buy a New York Times for a buck (sheeze!). I read a column on the editorial. Most of my dollar goes for the distributin and production costs of the NYT. A very, very small part of the dollar goes to the author of the column (or to all the "authors" of the Newspaper. Most goes to the publisher.

That model works easily because the NYT has to collect a lot of money for distirbution/prioduction costs. The author's tuppenny is a nothing add on.

So with many other models-- a book sells for $25, the author gets $1.

But if we assume that the distribution and production costs disappear ( or become very small) then the author's tuppenny has nothing to ride on.

In other words, suppose that William Safire and Anthony Lewis decide that rather than distributing their columns by the NYT they will distribute them by email, or by a web site. It will be inconvenient for them to ask everybody to send their two pennies a month.

However, Safire and lewis, because they are well known and often read will have something to sell to 3rd parties--their readers interst. They can sell advertising (directly by including a link on their webiste) or they can sell their subscriber list (Safire's presumablt to the Republicans, Lewis to the Denorcrats <g>).

Safire and Lewis quite possible will make more money. A middleman has been eliminated -- and in this case the NYT was a very inefficient middleman.

Regards,
 John

P.S.
At times the "list" can be very valuable because it may be very specific. A list for instance of 2000 people who will buy a new luxury car in the next week and have not yet decided which one has a great deal of value--perhaps $20,000-200,000

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John Lederer
Oregon. Wisconsin
johnl[_at_]ibm.net

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Received on Sat Apr 13 1996 - 21:10:47 GMT