The Core

"One way to escape a commodity market is to offer something that isn’t a commodity."

Difficult when your main asset is 'useful information that you don't really want to share with the world'

Unless there is a newbie coaching section (gack - who has time these days?)

>if it covers costs, does it have to make money?

Well, it depends on how one defines costs, eh?  If we're talking about operational costs in a strict sense, that's pocket change.  Many here have picked up bar tabs at the Islington that would pay the hosting for 3 or 4 years, so that must not be a real consideration.  It's the opportunity cost that's the killer.  Hypothetically, say we have a guy here who makes $80k a year for about 100 hours work. At his hourly rate, it's hard to justify spending 4 to 10 hours per day messing with a forum that might provide beer money.   That said, perhaps there are intangible benefits that may allow him to continue to only spend 100 hours per year on site development and maintenance.

Like 4eyes said, striking a balance is the hard part.

>I dont like the idea of a paid site.
>In all honesty I dont like the idea of a site with an open and closed area. I believe all open or all closed.

You and I feel the same, Jason. But I've screwed up enough forums now to know that what I like isn't necessarily what I need.

BTW, I could give a rat's derrière about the money. I'm here for the adrenalin rush.

If they hired me as their consultant, I would bring them lubricated flashlights and pictures of the outside world so they could see while they are laboring over their definitive work on 'how to be an Internet assclown, for dummies'...

1.) ask people what they want to read, watch what they actually read, and personalize the news experience to what they want to know about, based on your stats.  Do not charge them for access, so they come back. In fact, engage them with a loyalty program so you ensure they do.  They are the people that pay your bills.

2.) ask them what they want to purchase, watch what ads they actually click on, and personalize their ads by selling their adspace to companies looking to target them.  

....visits go up, EPC goes up.  What's not to like?  Not everything is about contextual ads.  Just engage and ask them and everything will go up an order of magnitude.

Very interesting discussion about this on Newsnight tonight.

All the big hitters were there in the studio: Lionel Barber (editor of the FT; paywall), Alan Rusbridger (editor of the Guardian; free), Mark Thompson (DG of the BBC; "free") and some top exec from Google.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00yzjky/Newsnight_22_02_2011/

Paywall works for niche info; general news it's gotta be free imo.

Ed