What are you worth in a free economy? Chris Anderson explains how 'freeconomics' will change the media world.(News)(Interview)

Advertising Age, February, 2008 by IVES, NAT

Byline: NAT IVES

Chris anderson's book "The Long Tail'' described the rising potential in niche media-enabled by plummeting digital-storage costs-and predicted a declining reliance on blockbuster media. In his first (as yet untitled) book since then, Mr. Anderson, the editor in chief of Wired magazine, plans to crystallize the implications of doing business when the cost of products, services and storage is falling rapidly toward zero.

"`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 the things we truly value today,'' he writes in a forthcoming Wired cover story previewing the topic.

That's not to say Wired's growing print circulation is about to become...