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On Sat, 8 Apr 1995, David Mill wrote:

> A few days ago I posted this:
> 
> < already offering one, I guess most people are trying to convince or have
> convinced managements of potential pay-back now or in the future.
> Would anyone share their successful arguments and/or provide examples of
> current or likely future financial successes?>>

We forgot all about clarinet.  They charge $3/user/month for the first 
5(?) users and $1/user/month for each additional user.  Most services 
include this cost in the monthy connect fee.  They have been offering 
this service for at least 5 years, and are doing quite well.

> Does this mean that there are NO examples of companies currently gaining at
> least some financial gain from online publishing or news services?

You may also want to check out http://www/info-house.com.  They use the 
First Virtual financial transaction system and include publications such 
as Penthouse, several catalogues (with on-line ordering), and several 
for-pay gifs & jpegs.

> And that no-one has ANY hopes of making such gain in the future from
> ANYTHING connected with online news?
> 
> PLEASE TELL ME IT ISN'T TRUE.

	It isn't!

> If it is the case, it has serious implications for the subscribers to this list.

	No, it just means that the infrastructure for collecting 
reasonable amounts of revenue and distributing them approriately hasn't 
been fully established yet.  In fact, there are several competing 
standards.  The biggest challeng has been getting an encrypted "check" 
across the internet without upsetting several government agencies.

> David Mill
> dmill@cityscape.co.uk

	Rex Ballard

From rballard@cnj.digex.net Mon Apr 10 01:04:28 1995
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