Posts Tagged: dual market

Week 7: Digital Goods / Digital Markets

FREE – The Future of a Radical Price
– Chris Anderson

1. Anderson discusses how “free” got started in the twentieth century by companies giving away something that spurred purchases of related goods.  What is “freeconomics” and what is it being driven by in today’s world?

2.  In 1996 the Village Voice became a free newspaper.  Since it no longer charged a subscription fee, readers perceived that it had a lesser quality.  On the other hand, The Onion started free and stayed free.  It is a much bigger success.  How is this possible?

3.  Anderson points out that, sooner or later, most producers in the digital realm will find themselves competing with “free”.  He also mentions that free can sometimes cause more harm than good.  Why should we go “free” if there is harm?

4. What is the engine behind “free”?  What is it that allows people to try pricing schemes that would otherwise seem insane?

5. What is Google’s reasoning behind wanting information to be free?  What does Anderson’s argument mean when he says lower prices are disruptive?

6.  China is a country where piracy has won and where the notion of copying work of others is a gesture of respect.  Chinese students have a hard time understanding that plagiarism is wrong.  Is there something we can learn here?

Applied Mass Communication Theory: Chapter 11
– Rosenberry and Vicker

1. Nearly all media businesses need to serve two markets simultaneously: audiences and advertisers.  However, one is always favored over the other and it’s rare that both benefit.  Is it possible to fix this dual market arrangement so that it is more fair?  Or should we select one of the markets to always be favored no matter what?

2. The goal of economics is determining what gets produced and who benefits by it.  But if online content is thought to be free, how do online producers benefit?