Evan Rudowski: Web Transplant

Staci Kramer gets the Newsday story right

via paidcontent.org

Staci Kramer of PaidContent.org has put in perspective why the disclosure of 35 paid subscribers to Newsday.com is not relevant to paid content efforts at other newspapers.

We are already seeing the "anti-paywall" contingent latching on to this bit of information in an attempt to support their position -- Alan Rusbridger of the Guardian gleefully tweeted the 35 subs number almost as soon as it came out. If we are to have a useful discussion about the benefits and the risks of paid content efforts, we need to be willing to understand what's really going on. Staci's article helps.

Suspension of Disbelief

Samuel Taylor Coleridge called it the suspension of disbelief -- the willingness of an audience to accept as true the premises of a work of fiction even if they are fantastic or impossible.

Blogging requires a suspension of disbelief as well -- a suspension of disbelief that there will be interest in anything the blogger has to say, or that the blogger will manage to avoid alienating friends, colleagues and strangers with pompous and arrogant pronouncements.

Because I occasionally feel I have something to say, and I am not satisfied doing it solely in the comments areas of other peoples' blogs, I've decided to start my own.

Hopefully I will manage to inform and entertain more than embarrass and alienate. Suspend disbelief for now.

Tags: blogging, Coleridge