So if you haven’t heard Chris Anderson revealed the business model of the future of the Web. (via TechCrunch)

“Everything that becomes digital will become free. There will be a free version, either you will be competing with free or giving it away for free and selling something else. If it is not zero today, it will be zero tomorrow.”

1. The best model is a mix of free and paid
2. You can’t charge for an exclusive that will be repeated elsewhere,
3. Don’t charge for the most popular content on your site,
4. Content behind a pay wall should appeal to niches, the narrower the niche the better

Um, yep that’s the one we kind of expected. In fact publishers have been using this model since before the Internet. I guess for some people this might still be a shift from driving mass eyeballs. I first thought the pure play ad model went out with the DotCom bust but then it was revived in the Web 2.0 hey day. Maybe it’ will finally die now.

It does make me wonder if there are any new business models out there. I guess everything is just a variation of what’s already come before it. How disappointing. I guess the real innovation comes from how you implement these models.

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