An iTunes for News?

David Carr, writing in the New York Times last January, suggested that someone should write an iTunes for News. The idea is related to Walter Isaacson's "How to Save Your Local Newspaper" in Time Magazine in February. Both think that Ted Nelson's mid-1960s "micro-payment" concept will fund online news dissemination, now that advertiser-supported print media seems dead.

I don't agree with this premise. When I want to possess a song, or a photo, or an e-Book, I appreciate a simple payment process like iTunes. I want; I buy. But not for news or community information.

Incoming e-mail from Aunt Sally. Click here to read the message for just .99¢.

That wouldn't work, right? Not just because you're used to free e-mail. Maybe Aunt Sally is a pain in the neck. You're not going to pay for her to nag at you. Many--maybe most--local news is someone you may not know informing you about an upcoming event, or a charity opportunity, or the latest happenings that you weren't involved in. Unless your family is participating, you wouldn't pay to read a season summary by the Little League coach, but you might read it if you came across it.

To stay generally informed, so that your life isn't constantly rocked by sudden changes, one keeps an ear to the ground. One day, you see the circus packing up and leaving town--why didn't I hear that they were coming? Because I didn't sign up for a Google alert on 'circus?' I don't like the circus that much. I don't care about circuses in general. I only care when they are coming to my town, or my hairdresser will be guest lion tamer for them. News is context-sensitive.

So, you scan that summary by the Little League coach, skimming over the long list of names you don't know. You get the gist--those kids two towns over were too much for our kids this year, but just wait. And then, near the end, the coach thanks the local electrician for putting in the new scoreboard for free, and you just paid him for work on your house, and you think, "Yeah, he's a good guy in town." You're incrementally more informed about what's going on.

That's how it works. Not for the New York Times or Time Magazine, but that's how it works at the local, community level. The way to pay for it is by assessing the local electrician and all the other businesses in town. They get the direct financial reward. Individual readers aren't going to click to pay for an article, not even two cents, and they shouldn't have to. The good news is that the cost of putting community news online is considerably cheaper than printing the New York Times. Divide it by the number of community-oriented local businesses, and the cost per business is iTunes-like.