(2009-02-09) Save Newspapers With Micropayments

A variety of people want to use Micro-Payments to save Newspaper Publishing.

Clay Shirky says it won't work. Newspapers can't entice us into small payment systems, because we care too much about our conversation with one another, and they can't force us into such systems, because OffTheBus and Pro Publica and Gawker and GlobalVoices and Oh My News and SpotUs and Smoking Gun all understand that not only is a news cartel unworkable, but that if one existed, their Competitive Advantage would be in attacking it rather than defending it. The threat from micropayments isn't that they will come to pass. The threat is that talking about them will waste our time, and now is not the time to be wasting time.