Google Developing Micropayments And Subscription System To Save Newspapers

Sep 10, 2009

Google (GOOG) is developing an online subscription and micropayment system that will enable online content providers to more easily charge for their content.

We're skeptical that consumers will want to pay on a per-page basis for online content, but we're big believers in the subscription model. Google's planned system, which the company described in a proposal to the Newspaper Association of America (embedded below), emphasizes subscriptions but enables micropayments as well.

Within the next year, we expect that hundreds of newspapers and magazines that currently give away their content for free online will start charging in one way or another. The scale and distribution of Google's planned system could greatly facilitate that.

(Google's system sounds similar to the planned offerings of Journalism Online, a startup launched recently by Steven Brill and Gordon Crovitz--see related story below.).