Bitcoin Forum

Economy => Trading Discussion => Topic started by: abstraction on March 01, 2011, 05:57:37 PM



Title: Newspaper business
Post by: abstraction on March 01, 2011, 05:57:37 PM
I was talking to a friend recently and she said people will continue to buy newspapers because they like the physical satisfaction of flipping through it while drinking coffee in the morning. Even though the content is struggling compared to online news sources, people still like the tangible aspect.

How much do you suppose printing a customized newspaper would cost per sheet? If it is manageable, I can see a bitcoin newspaper (BN) market emerging. A person who wants the service goes to the BN site and registers. They pay a base fee to cover the cost of printing and labor (allowing ads will reduce the price). Then, they select news providers to appear on the pages from a list with each charging their own fee (New York Times: 0.25BTC per article/author, The Guardian: 0.15BTC per article/author, blog writer: free for now, ESPN: 0.05BTC/article, etc.). Each day could be customized. For example, give me lots of content on Sunday, mostly business on Monday, entertainment on Tuesday, nothing Wednesday - Friday, mostly sports on Saturday. BN prints up the newspaper and delivers it as scheduled by the user. It would be like a cable service where you can pick and choose which channels to carry. Or, you can choose to use somebody else' news template (which means competition in the template market to present the best basket of news).

Think of yourself as a customer willing to pay for premium newspaper service. How much would you be willing to pay for this fully customizable service?


Title: Re: Newspaper business
Post by: nanaimogold on March 03, 2011, 10:39:08 AM
Nothing.

No one will use it.

Only dinosaurs and bus riders read printed newspapers and only then if the news is very fresh.

Anything that has to be delivered by mail is too stale and too expensive.

You would be better rewarded by putting that effort into an online magazine or blog.

This coming from a former newspaperman who rose from carrier to publisher; Paper news is old news.



Title: Re: Newspaper business
Post by: abstraction on March 03, 2011, 02:19:12 PM
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Only dinosaurs and bus riders read printed newspapers and only then if the news is very fresh.
This is the targeted audience. Which news is "fresh" is a subjective view. Fresher news comes at a higher price than staler news.

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Anything that has to be delivered by mail is too stale and too expensive.
It would be delivered by courier paid in bitcoins.

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You would be better rewarded by putting that effort into an online magazine or blog.
I'm not going to put any actual effort into it, but I want to develop the idea in case I run into someone who has a passion for that niche market. If I were to pursue an online magazine type of thing related to this, I would work on creating a script that takes a customized eMagazine and converts the unread content into a newspaper format to print.

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This coming from a former newspaperman who rose from carrier to publisher; Paper news is old news.
I know this, but I also know there are lots of people who like newspapers mostly for the feel of them.


Title: Re: Newspaper business
Post by: error on March 04, 2011, 03:31:40 AM
I liked newspaper until I got a first-generation Kindle three years ago. An ultralight laptop two years ago. And an Android phone last year. Now I can't stand newspaper.