Robert Loch: In search of a viable subscription model: "Imagine it as a spectrum. Presently all the risk sits with the publisher. My suggestion is that it should be possible to shift some of that burden down the spectrum, onto the content producer by developing systems that allow content providers to work as performance driven individual business units, within an overriding subscription model."

Value chains are ecosystems, and if business is not thriving everyone stands to lose. I'm interested in initiatives that share risk and reward among all actors, from content providers to distributors/aggregators to end users.

Too often, companies want to secure a safe revenue stream no matter what, and put the onus on someone else to make it happen. There's similar debate between advertisers and publishers about pay-per-performance programs. Advertiser: "Internet advertising doesn't work very well. I want to pay only for measurable actions, such as clicks, subscriptions or sales." Publisher: "What if your copy or creative stinks and nobody clicks the damn thing? What if your 'biggest sale in Internet history' is lousy and doesn't convert? Is brand exposure worthless? Do I have to bear all the risk?". Dialogs between deaf and mutes can stretch for a long time but are not very productive.

The reality is that 'component providers' who are not vested in the success of their customers will eventually end up without orders if the later don't make it. Likewise, customers who choke their suppliers to death might be left with no one to buy from. It's hard to be in the windshield business if there's no automotive market to speak of, and it's not always an option for an OEM to build the parts itself (because it might require different skills and culture).

Overall, models that mix a reasonable flat fee and a percentage based on performance will probably increase in popularity (I hear about mixed CPM/CPA advertising deals). For such schemes to happen in the subscription space, we'll need adapted tracking solutions to split revenue among players. I'm afraid transparent 1-pixel gifs (used by some affiliation management systems) won't make it. Tiered revenue models will probably involve web services.