Charging Readers Of News Sites To Post Comments

News Sites Start Charging Readers to Comment on Articles

A startup thinks newspapers can profit by getting people to pay to elevate their rants—or advertisements—to the top of the comments section

Joshua Brustein | April 20, 2016

News publishers have such a fraught relationship with the people who comment on their articles that many websites have been removing the comments section altogether (including this one). Michael Robertson thinks he has a better idea: start charging the people who hang out there.
Robertson, an entrepreneur in San Diego best known for founding MP3.com and fighting a long legal battle with the record industry, argues that the prospect of a new revenue stream will convince a struggling industry to reconsider the value of comments. A self-proclaimed libertarian, he believes his company, SolidOpinion.com, can provide a market solution to trolling.

Source: https://www.civilcomments.com/

<more at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-20/news-sites-start-charging-readers-to-comment-on-articles; related articles and links: http://www.scpr.org/programs/airtalk/2016/04/21/48166/debate-do-comment-sections-still-have-a-place-on-n/ (Debate: Do comment sections still have a place on news websites? April 21, 2016) and http://kernelmag.dailydot.com/issue-sections/staff-editorials/10326/make-comment-sections-cost-money/ (An Ingenious Way to Save the Comments Section. September 21, 2014))>