The current days of the Internet

Jeff Jarvis on Rupert Murdoch’s recently announced plan to start charging for online content using micropayments:

The problem here is the myth of regular readership. When I started newspaper sites, I had publishers on my rear because they expected people to read them every day, just as (they thought) people read newspapers. But just because the thing plops on the front porch every day, that doesn’t mean everybody reads everything—or sees every ad. That was the myth that fueled overpriced ad rates and overinflated editorial egos. Online, we get to see what people really read – and what it’s really worth to them—and that’s a lot less than we ever thought.

Dr. Evil is purported to have said, in relation to all this, that “the current days of the Internet will soon be over.”

I mean, Mr. Murdoch.

Related posts:

Kids these days

‘A computer without the Internet is useless’

Stephen Conroy’s Internet censorship jaunt