Some Economics of
Online Content
By Albert Sun

Hi Everybody!
Albert Sun albertsun.info
 Class of 2010
 Majoring in
Economics and Math

So what am I going to talk about?

Who else flew here
today?

One price fits all?

Some ECON 101
“The economy depends about as
much on economists as the
weather does on weather
forecasters.”
-Unknown

Supply and Demand
Price
Supply
Market Price
Equilibrium
The market
clears!
Demand
Equilibrium Quantity
Quantity

Price Discriminate!
Price
Demand
Quantity

How do we
apply this to
journalism?

 For each target audience
what shape is their
demand curve?
What does the demand
curve actually look like?  For any price change, how
much will traffic change?
The shape and elasticity of demand
give key questions to be answered
by every news outlet.  What numbers do we label
the axes with?

Imagine…
Price $24.95/m $14.95/mo
Free!
onth nth
Read all our articles online!
X X X
Early sneak peeks, get vital information
up to a week early! X X
Read it anywhere! Full RSS feeds, on
your mobile, and audio versions. X X
Opinion leader?
Your comments start with extra karma
and higher placement
X

Discussion
How can you target your product
at different audiences?

Photo Credits
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/rene_ehrhardt/2391114010/
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinsteele/1507196484/
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/extraketchup/622612084/
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/86921622@N00/1403809229/
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/andyinnyc/2491395142/
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/bjmccray/515435761/
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/btindrelunas/2250204291/
 http://www.nwa.com/travel/perkchoice_demo_html/
 And http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Economic-surpluses.svg