In-Reply-To: 
Message-ID: 
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII


On Fri, 2 Jun 1995, Kurt Foss wrote:

> At 11:23 PM 6/1/95, Milwnews@aol.com wrote:
> 
> >     But I do think it is at present a myth that the average home user will
> >find getting a direct net access as easy and as comfortable as going with a
> >commercial online service, and I know several  users of prodigy and aol who
> >think  the net access of these services (now in beta on aol) sufficient for
> >their interests, with actually some advantages of making suggestions for
> >where the user should look.

There is no question that an AOL or Prodigy account is easier to set up 
initially.  On the other hand, I have recieved several dinner-dates from 
women who wanted me to configure their PCs to go directly to a local ISP.

Yes, it takes a bit of time to get the scripts right, but when they get
their first $300 Prodigy bill for Internet use, they don't mind letting
me spend an hour with their machines.

> Net access *from* the commercial online services is adequate for those
> currently without a Net connection ... BUT can folks now on CIS, AOL, etc
> and those on the Net access Online Wisconsin's info on Prodigy? That was
> more my point. A lot of schools -- tomorrow's readers/viewers -- are
> connecting to the Net, seems to me, more than they are rushing to
> individual commercial services.

Prodigy, CIS and AOL will probably play a BIG role in managing royalty
distribution.  Even though I may not be hitting them for the line charges,
I can still see paying a flat-rate for a few hundred web pages.  $9 for
200 hundred pages is 5 cents/page.  I'd spend about $9/week.  With a 
discount, I could consider $20/month for 1000 pages (more than I will 
probably ever use) a Bargain.

> >  Some factors of that are changing rapidly, but it is not surprising that
> >several  newspapers pursuing a subscription base audience and advertising
> >support (right or wrong) would choose this route at this time, and several
> >more still are.

These days, it makes much more sense to put up an authenticated server and
simply permit/deny access to servers.  If you know the Internet address
of aol.com, prodigy.com, and compuserve.com, it doesn't take much to
add filtering.  Add secure HTTP and you have the structure for a billable
service.  Of course, if you also happen to allow access through your own
commerce server (or other third parties) you get a bigger piece of that
pie.  The good news for the "Big 3" is that they don't have to try and
manage keeping constantly changing data up to date on 10 million web-pages.

> Let's check the numbers again in a year.

> >     Where they go in the next year or few months, of course, is a different
> >issue -- note that Access Atlanta, which is only a little more than a year
> >old on prodigy, is now simultaneously developing an extremely ambitious web
> >site (right, Mike Gordon?)
> 
> That begs the question: How about Milwaukee, too?
> 
> Regards ~ Kurt
> 
> KURT FOSS * U_of Wisconsin-Madison * School of Journalism and Mass Comm.
>   5020 Vilas, Communication Hall * 821 University Avenue * Madison, WI 53706
>   Email: kfoss@murrow.journalism.wisc.edu * kfoss@itis.com * CIS: 70541,1040
>   Phone: Voice  608-263-3391 *  FAX 608-262-1361 * Home  608-271-1210
>   WWW1:  ONline WISCONSIN> http://www.journalism.wisc.edu/olw-home
>   WWW2:  NPPA> http://sunsite.unc.edu/nppa * EPW7 Sept. 8-16, 1995
> 

	Rex Ballard
	Standard & Poor's/McGraw-Hill
	Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect
	the Management of the McGraw-Hill Companies.




From rballard@cnj.digex.net Wed Jun  7 01:56:52 1995
Status: O
X-Status: