• by Kelly Samardak , July 8, 2009

"FREE" Book Party, Michael's Restaurant, New York
July 7, 2009

I'm back! I feel like it's been forever since we've gotten together. Over a week is definitely close to forever in online media years, so let's get to it. As I'm writing this, I am also grinning out the window at what has to be one of the most beautiful days NYC has seen yet. The air in the shade is fresh and as cool as a squirrel's belly, while the sun on the bright side of the street warms the skin gently, not August angrily. You'd never know by the smiling faces of oblivious tourists and the half-naked homeless guy on Broadway and 25th that in less than 24 hours I discovered that Free is the new price and that the media industry is still in crisis and about 60 white people will show up to hear about how to get out of it (you'll get that reference later today or early tomorrow).

Let's start with last night while I still remember it (unlike in college, where this sentence would have started with "what happened last night?" as I peel a 99-cent Burger King chicken sandwich off my cheek). MDC Partners Inc. threw a little shindig for Chris Anderson, author of "The Long Tail," and Wired magazine editor in chief. He just released his book, "Free: The Future of a Radical Price," free to guests; the audiobook version is also being given away for free. 

Hyperion, under Disney Publishing Worldwide, is publishing the book and they're putting their $0.00 where their mouths are, I suppose, even though the cool price of $26.99 is printed on the jacket. And you know what, this idea of his has been cooking since December of 2007, where on page 36 of MediaPost's Media magazine he discussed his plan to give the book away free and other free models with writer Steve Smith. If you still have that issue, it's a collector's edition and proof of follow-through! (for you paper haters, you can find it  here, too)(for free). So what's the book about?

The word I heard most (besides free) in his Cliff's Notes speech was "freemium," a word that sounds like something wet you'd find in a Tribble's ear, that really represents the price of free.

Anderson isn't an idiot (thank goodness, or all of you Long Tail quoters would look pretty silly), there is no such thing as a free lunch (or snack, or cocktail). SOMEONE pays for it. That article you're reading online? The site is hosted by a server that has a cost and it runs on electricity (until someone gets a solar-powered server going already), which has a cost - as a very basic example. Obviously, to stay afloat or to soar above the salt water, you have to charge for something. Anderson used Radiohead as an example - giving the milk away for free, but then charging for a week with the cow. AKA - music = free, shows = cost, merch = cost. As for this whole idea of giving his book away for free and the risks involved, Anderson offered "It's better to be an insurgent than an incumbent."

So the challenge to the news media, entertainment media, maybe even porn media is the definition of your freemium. Whatever it is that you decide is special enough to charge for best be pretty special. I have a feeling if you listen to your audience, they'll tell you clearly what they will pay for. While working the room with my temporary pathetic point-and-shoot (borrowed and returning, boo), I met Christine Ragasa, Director of Publicity for Hyperion and Brenden Duffy, Editor at Hyperion. I also cornered (or centered, really) Laurel Touby, mediabistro Founder & Cyberhostess.  As I left because it suddenly smelled like someone dropped a pile of dead sturgeon on the floor of Michael's Restaurant, I saw Tina Brown, founder and editor in chief of The Daily Beast.

Kind of funny: During Anderson's soapboxing, he said that now is the best time to be a privately owned company, that having a venture capitalist with you is not good right now. A couple of people at the front of the guest half circle groaned uncomfortably as a dapper gentleman said, "present company excluded, of course."

Let's party! Send invitations to kelly@mediapost.com.  I miss you!

See photos taken with my camera before it died here.