Free in Democracy

[Marc Pease]

Chris Anderson's look at the value of "free" doesn't necessarily concentrate on a pricing model but more importantly takes into account the monetizing of future resources in the distribution of free. Journalism as an advocation, the teaching and the organization of media amateurs through mentoring more than full-time writing is a structural change with emphasis on non-monetary rewards. Has there been too much emphasis by traditional media outlets for short-term profits? Advertising buys and the collaborative distribution ties to spot advertising and the value added services attempted in Denmark by publisher Nyhedsavisen's free newspaper point to the erosion of the newspaper industry's monopolistic ad marketplace and could be compared here to U.S. traditional broadcasting and radio. Malcolm Gladwell's criticism of Anderson does track one key business pricing component in the free debate, that of the business experiences of both pharmaceutical and electricity distribution costs. Do the future pricing models, including distribution, have to be built on the competitive structures of the monopolistic past or does Marc Cuban have an answer with a hologram in every sky? Online advertising still is a positive revenue based model but is it time to provide the incentives for Anderson's path dependency? Cuban's ISP distribution is ripe for the new marketplace model with noted data and tracking of audience behavior via Google requirements. Seth Godin's response in acknowledging lower barriers to entry is quite opposite of the current efforts by the telecommunications lobby and its emphasis to strip away burdensome local barriers to entry isn't it? Quoting; "traditional media outlets will lobby for relief, complain and criticize what is taking place." Although Godin does note YouTube's yearly bandwidth expenditures of $360 million this could be precisely what Anderson's "salvation" signifies through public engagement and open source encouragement of local journalism. There needs to be a new model out there that takes into account the abandoned public service distribution of free media and of free connectivity. Victor Pickard and Joseph Torres of Free Press write about five policy proposals sustaining local newsrooms and journalism. (http://www.freepress.net/files/saving_the_news.pdf)

When these Free Press proposals are looked at critically with ties and consideration to broadband deployment in rural areas, the underserved, and last mile connectivity under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Anderson's free is a value worth exploring.