[dangrossman]

This doesn't actually work. Micropayments from readers will never substitute for ad revenue, and convenience isn't the reason.

Even if you removed all friction from the system, and had the government mandate every citizen of the United States 18 years or older automatically has $12 per month taken from their pay (a typical content service subscription cost) and put in a microtransactions fund to distribute to the sites you read, you'd only be covering about 20% of what US advertisers currently spend. An 80% revenue cut would put most newspapers out of business: it certainly wouldn't let them remove their ads while operating as they currently do.

The reason micropayments will never add up is that advertisers have more to spend than consumers. They have more to spend because a portion of every purchase consumers make is funding that advertising. When you pay your car loan, buy groceries, fill your prescriptions, you're giving advertisers money to spend. And you're giving them a lot more per month than you have left over to fund your own microtransaction pool for the month.

[itsyogesh]

Wow, I did not think from that perspective at all. Thank you for giving an in-depth overview too. I need to think of some way that works as a value add for the newspapers and provides a better reading experience for users.