An Economist Talks about How to Pay for News
James Hamilton was interviewed in Duke Magazine.
We’d like to spark a debate about privacy and monetizing the attention of people who are interested in hard news. When I talk to my students in my media-policy class, I say, “Would you be willing to trade off some of your privacy for a better deal?” and most of them say no. And then I say, “Who has a Harris Teeter [grocery store] card?” and they raise their hands. Then I say, “You’ve done it. You’ve traded off getting to that lower price by giving them information about who you are and what your purchase patterns are.”
Right now Google and Yahoo know a lot about each of us: what we surf, what we search for. But when you search Google and end up reading something at The News & Observer, right now you and I would see the same mortgage ad. If you allowed the company to use more about what they know about you, and share it across companies to target ads to you, that could raise the advertising rates.
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