[layble]

I know of a large printer company who approached a large media company with a deal that would have had the large media company change the color of the text on their printer friendly pages to something near black but requiring the color cartridge instead of true black. As I recall they were willing to pay seven figures annually. The media company did not take them up on their offer.

The underhandedness/cleverness of the printer companies is not to be underestimated.

[Lordsandwhich]

That is such a sneaky move. It is entirely horrible but you have to admire the thought that went into it.

[psyc]

There's a subreddit for ideas like this, called Unethical Life Protips.

[Invictus0]

Wow, that's incredible. Even more surprising is that the media company didn't write a story about this.

[spydum]

Very likely wanted to keep that potential revenue stream in their back pocket for when things got tight

[pmiller2]

There may have been NDAs involved.

[supernumerary]

To say nothing of surreptitious tracking dots on all printed materials.

[shostack]

I might be missing something here...why would the media company consider it even? Was it because the printer company charged the same price for either ink but had better margins on the colored version they wanted them to switch to?

[aptwebapps]

I think the GP was referring to media that would be printed by others, not the media company.

[lobster_johnson]

Wouldn't such a move benefit all printer manufacturers?

[ThrustVectoring]

If you're big enough, it'd still be profitable even with the other manufacturers free-riding on it.