Quoted on WSJ Blog
Freedom Ain’t Free, And Neither Is The News - DFJ’s Nic Brisbourne has some insights on the difference between price and value, based on controversy surrounding the AP’s decision to start charging fees to online readers. At issue is a comment made by AP Chairman Dean Singleton, who said “When you give it away for free it has no value. When you begin charging for it, it has some value.” Brisbourne counters that “just because giving something away lessens the perception of value doesn’t mean charging for it increases the perception of value.” This type of logic, is of course, heavily applicable when considering the concept of freemium models. It also begs the question, if any of the free-model darlings (Twitter/Facebook) were to start charging for their services, would that necessarily increase their value?
