Daily Office: Friday

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¶ Matins: It’s time to pay up. You’re reading this for free, and, for the time being, that’s fine. I don’t need the money right now. But The New York Times, from which I draw so many of my links, does. It’s teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. Handwriting on the wall:

  • James Surowiecki in The New Yorker. Moral of the story? You get what you pay for; or: you pay nothing, you get nothing.
  • Richard Pérez-Peña in The New York Times. The incredible shrinking Washington press corps.

Now, I’m a paid-up subscriber who gets everyday delivery of the paper. Your cost could be much, much lower. Who knows how low? The problem is, nobody’s really asking.

Oremus…

§ Matins. The last time I looked into micropayments, I was dismayed by what I will have to call the negativism of nattering nabobs, to paraphrase a long-ago VP. “Can’t be done,” they said. “Hasn’t been tried,” said I. Now that free lunches are being withdrawn from the table everywhere, it may be time to look into what a nickel will buy. Â