It was a little over a year ago that Wired editor-in-chief Chris Anderson offered a sneak peek at his second book; now, with the release of Free just a half-year away, he’s sharing with WSJ readers—and addressing head-on their likely skepticism that a business model built on the giveaway could flourish in these recessionary times. “Extracting a business model from free is not always easy, especially when your users have come to expect gratis,” Anderson concedes:
“Does this mean that Free will retreat in a down economy? Probably not. The psychological and economic case for it remains as good as ever—the marginal cost of anything digital falls by 50 percent every year, making pricing a race to the bottom, and ‘Free’ has as much power over the consumer psyche as ever. But it does mean that Free is not enough. It also has to be matched with Paid… Free may be the best price, but it can’t be the only one.”
As we noted last year, the publishing industry has been thinking through these “free” questions for some time; you’ll notice that the big houses have become a lot more inclined to give content away, and in high-profile cases like Oprah‘s touting of Suze Orman, the results have seemed promising. At least that’s how they looked to us—what’s your take?