I've had this argument lots of times, and I tend to flip-flop between several positions, but I think you're missing the big big win of micropayments(*). Micropayments allow an individual to charge for information which is of value to the reader, but the magnitude of which is too small to handle by conventional means; for example, a single article or comic strip in a newspaper is too cheap to perform a complete SET/{VISA,MC,NOVUS) transaction for. The journalist cannot sell the work direct- instead she must sell the work through a middleman who takes by far the biggest cut. Micropayments allow each author to be her own wire-service. _This_ will be the triggering point for the new media. These services can be combined into edited newspapers without the editors needing to set up complex traditional arrangements (I'd pay for John Young's Daily News :) Freedom of the Press belongs to those who own the vending machines Simon (*) For the purpose of this message, micropayments are defined to be low value transactions below the minimum values acceptable for conventional payment networks --- Cause maybe (maybe) | In my mind I'm going to Carolina you're gonna be the one that saves me | - back in Chapel Hill May 16th. And after all | Email address remains unchanged You're my firewall - | ........First in Usenet.........