For companies whose core product is content, the idea we internet visionaries sold is a load of crap. We persuaded executives to compete with themselves online by setting up web sites that offered for free the same content their staffs labored so strenuously to produce and sell in their print publications. Companies were supposed make money by "monetizing the attention economy," or some other similarly vaporous concept. Now the internet is pulverizing them. Following our lead, companies have now trained a generation of young people to never, ever, ever expect to pay for content on a laptop or desktop. But this is not quite the apocalypse. Many new digital platforms are brewing, and early on in the development of each one there will be a battle for the business model. Every new device is another chance to turn it all around. The first decade of the web could come to be seen as a momentary aberration. So, media companies, on behalf of all misdirected internet visionaries, I am sorry. We like you -- we really do -- and we do not want a world without you. If you can hold on until we all have new kinds of screens, and new sets of expectations, you will be fine. You will be different, but fine. Just do not take my word for it this time. Ask around.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/234123
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