Like the one you were going to yesterday afternoon as you walked past me

But ironically people are using news sites more than ever as a source of information and advice on what to buy. This includes social media, because other than personal experiences, most of the advice proffered there has been sourced from professional media.

The question then is how can the news media get rewarded for the value its content provides, beyond selling the space around it, and beyond charging for it up-front, which greatly restricts both the audience and readers’ ability to share?

As for your comment about optimized advertising leading to lower media revenues: This is somewhat offset by the ability of websites to charge more for more highly targeted ads. But yes, they can’t directly capture this value when the targeting is done by an ad network, they can only hope that it trickles down.

Plus, all that VC investment is in optimizing (reducing cost) advertising which means less money paid by advertisers for more bang. Less money spent is not good for publishers.

Where will it stop? Already, publishers are helping to support quite a large infrastructure of businesses that live off of people’s desire to read quality content without getting a fraction of what it costs to produce. The less original content, the lower the quality, the less people will turn to the Internet except as a glorified shopping catalog or smart TV service.

It starts with Education (in the US I understand that without real money you can’t access good schools, and this is true in the UK).

It continues with access to healthy food (more expensive). And the way you eat will be easily tracked.

If you are healthy, insurance is lower, loans are easier to get.

And all things being equal, the 1% wealthiest people in the US captured 80% (TBC) of wealth creation in the last 20 years.