There’s a website called Blendle which started up two years ago. It’s a site where you can pick and choose stories from various newspapers and magazines – The New York Times, Time magazine, Barron’s, Newsweek, etc. And they have a paywall for each article you read, where you pay something like 25 cents per article and if you don’t like the article, you can ask for a refund on the spot!

They do ask you why you didn’t like the article first before giving the refund, but I’m not sure why you wouldn’t like an article other than boredom. I mean if you disagreed with what the writer was saying, would that be a reason not to like it? If it has bad grammar, is that a reason? I don’t know, but I don’t see myself asking for a refund if I didn’t like an article. Unless it was something bad about me, of course.

Blendle has 1 million members already. You sign up with your email and then pay as you go.

The New York Times calls it, “The iTunes of Journalism.”

It turns out that people don’t like paying for actual news stories, as you can get them anywhere, but they are willing to pay for more in depth stories and articles. Stories they can’t get elsewhere.

This might be a good model for comics – pay as you go for each comic you like. 25 cents for Peanuts or $1.00 for any six comics, or whatever, although you can read them free at GoComics or Comics Kingdom, so maybe not.