Op-Ed: "Pay or Data" Has Its Reasons - Even if You Disagree

The ongoing collapse of advertising revenue within the creative media landscape certainly exacerbates the issue, with publications forced to rely on reader subscriptions, sponsored content, or pay-for-play coverage to fund their platforms – two out of three of which limit any negative feedback almost entirely.

The affluent, early-adopter users who are mostly likely to pay $ᵤ are also those users with highest $ₐ, as advertising to them commands a premium. Unless you enforced discriminatory subscription pricing to users, based on the counterfactual of their potential ad revenue, you’d still be better off advertising to the people willing to drop $10/month ... See more

People like to talk about how media needs new business models. The business models are perfectly fine. People will either pay for the content themselves or their attention will be monetized with advertising. Those are fundamentally good business models.