This could either be inspired or a bag of fail. The U.S. has a unique way of trying to pare down the Taliban’s power in Afghanistan: They’re talking about offering money to members if they quit. It’s one with pitfalls – it’ll probably only work temporarily to buy time and loyalty. But it replicates a program that was used in Iraq to strong effect. We’re not sure how we feel about essentially bribing people to switch sides. source
It’s time to start getting paid for broadcast content online. I think a free model is a very difficult way to capture the value of our content. I think what we need to do is deliver that content to consumers in a way where they will appreciate the value.
News Corp. Deputy Chairman Chase Carey • Describing the necessity to make a really smart and cool service incredibly lame and not awesome. Carey’s talking about Hulu, of course, and he hopes to see the company charge for some of the same content that’s available for free over the airwaves in 2010. However, it could get worse as time goes on – with the possibility of Comcast taking over NBC Universal, they could stick an even deeper fork into one of big media’s best forays into the online world. Don’t screw this up, jerks. • source