by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
The Internet is no longer new. An entire generation has grown up with it at its beck and call. So, it’s time for it to grow up and accept that it’s a mature medium. As such, here are some things that should happen, but won’t happen, like….NOW.
- Metered Email
It make no sense to allow this valuable potential profit center to go unmetered and untaxed. Now, I know that Republicans REALLY HATE THE POSTAL SERVICE, but what better way to fund the postal service as it exists today than to allow them to meter email in some way. You want fast email, you pay a few cents more than free email. Or something. Unfettered email is something we all take for granted so much that to change it would freak everyone out, enrage them. But it’s something that SHOULD be done, but WON’T be done. - Everything Behind A Paywall
Maybe if all MSM content was behind a paywall of some sort, then we could go back to the halcyon days when even freaky weirdos like me could at least freelance. While a lot of MSM has gone behind a paywall, not enough have. - Burn Newspapers To The Ground To Save Them
Someone with a few billion lying around should begin to buy up newspapers en mass and convert them to something new, something like an app. Almost all newspapers besides the LA Times, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and The USA Today are pretty much just zombies. Why do they even exist? I would buy as many other newspapers as I could up and completely re-imagine them. Or, if you wanted to be an asshole, you destroy newspapers by doing the same thing but without buying the newspapers. You build an app that gives you the very best of Twitter-like content from an paid editorial staff — make it hyperlocal for places all over the country — and go directly after newspapers. Everyone would hate you, but there’s a chance you’d make a shit tone of money.
