A Modified News Micropayment Model for Newspapers on the Social Web

Abstract

This theoretical article explores the idea of small, per-article payments for the newspaper industry. The article examines existing academic and industry literature on micropayments, as well as explores underlying theories in media management and economics, marketing, behavioral economics, sociology, computer information systems, and mass communication. The authors propose a “Modified News Micropayment Model” that contains 4 primary drivers that make the idea of micropayments a feasible and attractive idea for news industries in the Social Web environment—socialization/sharing, a microearn component, local focus, and a centralized banking system. The model is presented and discussed, and future directions for research are offered.