There has been a lot written lately about how newspapers are putting up pay walls around their content so what is free today may cost you to read online in the near future.
According to Nieman Journalism Lab, Google responded to an RFI from the Newspaper Association of America to build the system for collecting online micropayments for content.
Considering Google already has Google Checkout in its arsenal of products I’m quite sure they could make this work for newspapers.
Here’s one scenario from the response:
A system like this would mean that Google makes money on content provided by newspapers, something newspapers today can’t stand. Of course, this is different as the newspaper will be making money, too.
Lots of ideas flying around about newspapers with the one constant being that their business model today isn’t working.
How newspapers respond will have a dramatic effect on local advertising.
Stay tuned!