Media ink - Freemium’s just another word for nothing left to lose

Joe Mandese

In his regular column, Joe Mandese discusses changing notions of value, pricing and business models and its likely impact on the media industry.

Freemium's just another word for nothing left to lose

Joe Mandese

With Apologies to Kris Kristofferson and Janis Joplin, there is something eerily prophetic about the lyrics to their 1970s hit, Me and Bobby McGee. But you need to modify the word 'freedom 'to 'freemium'. Free, if you hadn't heard, is the latest twist in the media economy.

Chris Anderson, in his book Free: The Future of a Radical Price,makes the case that information is destined to be free, and that any business that relies on information – say, media – must figure out how to...

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