Why I spent money at a Web site

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, March 15, 1996 by Thom Forbes

Many publishers are attempting to answer a critical question about publishing on the World Wide Web: With so much free information available, will readers pay a premium to access certain content?

Ten days ago, I logged into Science's World Wide Web site, typed in my credit-card number, and ordered an issue. Since then, I've been thinking about why I paid $9, including $2 extra for first-class mail delivery, for a magazine--particularly since I'd already learned a lot about the contents of the two articles I wanted to read. As I retrace the steps of my purchase across network TV news, a commercial online service, a local newspaper, e-mail and a few stops on the Web, I see some issues for you to consider as you think about ways to make money on the Web.

Media coverage of the content of other media--from TV Guide to "Entertainment Tonight"--has become a huge information category of its own. It will explode on the Web, which not only allows individuals to be publishers themselves but is also a venue where text, sound and images are hyperlinked to other Web sites. This convergence may create a new audience of occasional or one-shot readers willing to pay for content that fits a particular need or interest.

Let's take a look at how and why I came to buy Science.

My wife, Deirdre, saw a story about a "cure" for children with language-based learning disabilities on the "NBC Evening News." Our six-year-old son has a two-year language delay. The story claimed that some language-impaired children who played CD_ROM-based video games with computer-generated speech had made incredible gains in their development.

Deirdre was skeptical, so she went online to several learning-disabilities forums on CompuServe to see what others were saying. Nothing, yet, it turned out, although a dialogue got going soon after. However, a group moderator had posted an e-mail tip that the story would run on all the network news shows that evening--a well-targeted, well-timed bit of publicity.

The next morning, our local newspaper ran an Associated Press story about the research. I learned that the TV pieces were generated by two studies published that day in Science. The AP story seemed truncated, so I checked The New York Times. Surprisingly, there was nothing. I logged into CompuServe. Someone had already forwarded the full AP story, which was available on CompuServe, to our mailbox. Added details were promising enough to make me want to read the original story. I turned to the Web, and quickly found Science's site using the Yahoo search engine.

There were free capsule descriptions of the articles, but I learned that the articles themselves cost extra. Reading the jargon-filled abstracts did not put me in a buying mood. But there were links to a "Beyond the Printed Page" section of the site where I was able to download some audio samples from the CD-ROMs, as well as a video clip of a child playing one of the games. The research came alive.

There was also a link to a home page for the researchers themselves. This site turned out to be a trove of information about their work, the nature of the disability, more multimedia samples, discussion forums, a live chat room, and more links and pointers on-and off-line that I'm still exploring (including a downloadable PBS script and a reference to a Times article, published six weeks before, that I photocopied for 25 cents at the public library).

After tooling around the Web for about an hour, however, I returned to Science to buy the issue. Why?

* The Web sprawls and expands. Articles on paper contract and focus. I wanted a definitive statement of the findings.

* Web sites come and go, and are not easily shown to others. Paper is permanent and transportable. I wanted to share the findings with other parents and teachers.

* Science earned my money. Frankly, after seeing all the value it added to the story, I would have felt guilty not paying.

* On a less altruistic level, as much as reading the dry abstract of the story itself turned me off, hearing the sounds of the games and watching the kids play them made me want to know more.

Bottom line: Magazine publishing has become a multimedia world in more ways than one. I was willing to pay for a focused, unique story in a publication I'd never read before. But I was enticed to do so by other media--and the deal was sealed by what I could see, hear and read on the Web.