No Such Thing as a Free Article

Today, after I finished reading two of the articles assigned for today’s class, I ran across an article on Ad Age that discussed how The New York Times is now testing how to combat ad blockers by giving Times’ readers who have blockers a choice—either pay for the articles or take down the ad blocker. A spokeswoman for the Times stated, “The creation of quality news content is expensive and digital advertising is one way that The New York Times and other high quality news providers fund news gathering operations."

Link: http://adage.com/article/media/york-times-a-message-ad-blockers/302995/

So although the best things in life may be free, including digital articles, they may still not be entirely free of cost. Clearly, The New York Times has a revenue stream coming from selling ads. Authors Chris Anderson and Malcom Gladwell discuss where digital content is headed and where profits are currently coming from. More specifically, Gladwell argues against some of Anderson’s claims. When thinking about prices and costs, one has to factor in the idea that “free shifts the economy from a focus on only that which can be quantified in dollars and cents to a more realistic accounting of all things we value today” (Anderson).

I believe that although the price tag of free is attached to a plethora of digital media content, humans who navigate who access this content are still paying—they’re just not paying in cash. Spotify allows users to listen, but only if they can bear the advertisements. The same goes for The New York Times, as mentioned above. Currency is just jumping camps, essentially! I agree with Anderson that there is a huge difference between cheap and free, with the clearest distinction being between expensive and free. However, people still pay for quality services, and as stated in the Gladwell article, those services that are not free are making a lot more money than those that are—logically, in my opinion. So although Anderson argues that everything is headed towards becoming free, I argue not. If individuals are willing and able to pay for services they care about, they will! Additionally, even if a service is free, we are still paying in some way, shape, or form. And what is the most common form? Attention. Every time we watch an ad, we withdraw currency from our attention ‘savings account’ and hand it over to whatever brand is being promoted. So yes, costs and prices are constantly shifting—but regardless, someone, somewhere, is always paying.