I picked up the March issue of Wired today to read editor-in-chief Chris Anderson’s feature on the so-called “freeconomy” that’s been moving a long steadily as the Internet has become more popular: free music downloads, reading newspapers for free online, free e-mail from various web mail providers, et cetera.
The purchase was ironic since I had started reading the article for free online then realized just how long it was and couldn’t bring myself to go through that much text on a screen. So, I went out and paid $5.99 for a copy of the magazine…to read an article about free stuff that I could have read for free.
In a way, I may have made Anderson’s point though. Nothing is truly free. The companies who are giving away their products are making money some other way.
In the case of Wired, by putting the article up for free reading online, they ended up selling an extra copy of the magazine.
No Comments on "My ironic purchase of the latest issue of Wired"