[Sigia-l] (compilation) who here is paying for content?

[Kathleen Klein]

Hi
Thanks to all who responded to my query about paying for Internet content.
Here's a compilation for those interested. - Kathleen

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I pay for Salon, which I want it to exist -- like subscribing to the
Atlantic and the New Yorker.

Same for Consumer Reports in print and online.

I pay for The Well because I have great communities there and have
been there for 13 years.

I used to pay for Search Engine Watch because I thought it was cool
and useful, now they comp me because we're colleagues.

Avi Rappaport
http://www.searchtools.com
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I "pay for metafilter.com" by making donations to keep it going.
It's like paying for content, but I am not being forced.

I also pay to keep my site going.

Blake Carver
http://www.lisnews.com
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I am actually an independent Information Broker who does online
(primarily) research for a living also. Because I'm a member of AIIP (Assoc
of Independent Information
Professional) I get discounts to some pay for content vehicles.

I subscribe to the following:

Lexis Nexis (actually the Nexis.com part via web interface. I am a
transactional user and pay by "library" that I use which varies between
approx. $35 to $100.  For this you can search "within" that library
only.

Dow Jones Interactive/Factiva -via the web. They're set up differently
and although I'm still a transactional user all searching of citations
is basically free and then you pay for the articles.  Approx. $2.50
each.

Occasionally, I use a Dun and Bradstreet report for a few dollars and a
report from FreePint (a UK source) also a few dollars each depending on
what you're getting.

I'm planning on subscribing to Hoovers.com soon. It'll be about
$100/year with my association discount I think.

As an FYI - the "charging for content" is a huge issue in our business.
You should also know that many of my AIIP colleagues (one or two of whom
I think are on this list too) use DIALOG, one of the biggies in the
database information biz.
Jan Knight
www.bancroftinfo.com
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For fun, internet radio, with an annual subscription of $35 paid on credit
card.
<http://www.wrnr.com/home.html>
Their stream -- with the subscription -- is without advertising and
relatively customizable so I don't have to hear genres that I don't like.
It's also a very cool station that I can't pick up on my side of the DC
metro area. It doesn't play the exact same music that everyone else plays,
so there's a snowball's chance that you can hear something you've never
heard before.
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I'm an annual subscriber to Surfline.com. It's for fun (surfing). The cost
is $29.95 and it saves me a great deal of time that I'd otherwise spend
driving around looking at beaches. It provides live video of surf breaks,
reliable surf forecasts (once normalized with actual observation) and surf
alerts via email. Plus it has a fairly well rounded coverage of the general
surfing community. Hope this helps :)
Darin Sullivan
 www.expertcity.com
-----------------------------

When I enrolled in a college marketing class we were required to have
Wall Street Journal subscriptions (delivered to home) that included
the online WSJ.

Well worth the cost.
-----------------------------

I subscribe to Adventive (formerly I-SALES) -- been there many years, great
newsletters/discussion on advertising, branding, commerce

http://www.adventive.com/

Also enjoy emusic.com - lots of classic albums, $10/month, all you can
download (& keep & burn) - first 50 downloads are free - what music
download services should be like
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I don't pay for anything personally, but at work we subscribe to an
online magazine that costs $40 (one time fee).
http://e-volunteerism.com/subscribe.html

I used to pay for articles at Northern Light when I was in school.
-----------------------------

I pay for the WSJ, which I really really like.
I don't even use all the features of it, and I consider it a terrific value.
-----------------------------

i pay for  ...

salon.com
wsj.com
vindigo (well, it's for my pda, but it's paid and downloaded via the web)
cooksillustrated.com (for their recipe database)

and i pay for individual articles and/or data on a bunch of different sites
if i need the info and the price is right at the time (the last time was
for an article on the economist's web site)
-----------------------------

I pay for WSJ and have for years, which has ruined the paper version for me
as I can not find what I am looking for in the pages.  The ability to search
the WSJ and Dow Jones Newswire is very helpful and the ability to see the
European version and extra stories is very helpful.  The electronic version
is less expensive than the paper subscription, which is how is started down
this path.

I also subscribe to paper edition of the Economist, which provides access to
their electronic version also.  The electronic version adds the ability to
search for older articles and also provides content that is not available in
the US print version.

I have bought a couple HBR articles.  This can be a less expensive means to
get the one article I am interested in.

Conversely I don't buy archived articles from the NY Times or the Washington
Post as the pricing is out of whack in my perception.  Paying anything above
the price of the one periodical for one article (25 cents for the paper and
$2 for one article) does not make much sense to me, even if I really have an
interest in that article.
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Guess I'm a junkie. I subscribe to Salon (just renewed); to the New York
Review of Books online (I'm also a subscriber); as well as to Znet (online
version of Z Magazine) and Counterpunch.
-----------------------------

I pay 2.95/month for a subscription to ConsumerReports
online. I rarely use it, but it's a pretty small bite, and
when I do have the need to research a new product, I find it
to be very useful.
-----------------------------

I subscribe to Consumer Reports, Cook's Illustrated, and though I can't
afford the annual subscription, I have in the past subscribed to
ArtToday's image database for a week at a time.

I would also subscribe to Sunset Magazine if they had fulltext back
issues.  I would love to get rid of the stockpiles of magazines I've
kept!  Currently however, they offer no premium services over the web.

I used to subscribe to the local paper's archives access but they shut
that down over a year ago.
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I suspect I may have less aversion to paying for content than most people,
because I used to make my living as a commercial database expert.  Offhand,
I recall the paying for the following in the last year:

Vindigo (although I'm still somewhat steamed that Palm users don't have to
pay and Pocket PC users do)
Consumer Reports (which I also get in print), including car reports
Wall Street Journal
NY Times archive articles
AAA (I assume that member-only content is considered "paid for"?)
Chow News and Chow Alert (if you're a foodie, check out chowhound.com)
Dialog Info Services (an assortment of commercial database research)
plus various industry reports for my last employer (e.g, Forrester and Jakob
Neilsen's Design Annual (I hesitate to say that for fear of being seared))

Stephanie Heacox
www.orbis-2.com
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The only purchases I recall this past year were a single NY Times archived
article (which wasn't worth the $2 or $3 I spent), a Harvard Business Review
article (which was worth  $5 I spent), and a couple of Consumer Reports car
buying invoices that were worth many times the $12 cost for each one. Also
Harrisononline.com for a couple of months when I was doing medical research.
How about you?
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/01/technology/01ONLI.html?todaysheadlines
More Internet users are showing a willingness to pay for content online,
according to a survey of cyberspending patterns released on Wednesday. ...
which also shows that a relative handful of businesses benefit from these
purchases and that advertising remains the overwhelming source of income for
supporting digital content.

Klein Info Design
Information architecture/Web project management
www.kleininfodesign.com
206-781-2615