AP, Reuters, Bloomberg, and DJ all read each other's wires. It'll be on Bloomberg, Reuters and DJ by tomorrow morning. Newspapers will pick it up and report it with coverage of earnings report, probably along with this item about forum leaders strike.
zdnet.com
02/05/97 AOL To Charge Content Providers Annual Fee
Inter@ctive Week
By Catharine P. Taylor
America Online Inc. plans to start charging five-figure fees to content providers with areas inside at least one of its forums, another sign that the online service provider is taking steps to make up for lost revenue following implementation of its $19.95 all-you-can-eat subscriber pricing plan.
News of the decision prompted a call for a strike in the Company Connection forum.
According to Jeff Baudin, a forum leader in the Company Connection,
a tech support area consisting of many small businesses, AOL informed
participants via a letter last week that in future it will charge
$55,000 per year for maintenance of each forum. Thus far, it has provided the service free of charge.
"I think they're trying to clear up bandwidth for bigger producers,"
said Baudin, president of MicroMat Computer Systems, based in Windsor,
Calif. He sent a letter calling for a strike to other forum leaders
Tuesday.
Kevin Schoeler, the AOL executive who signed AOL's letter, could not
be reached for comment late Tuesday, and it was unclear whether AOL
was making similar changes in its relationships with companies in
other forums.
However, the move appears to be part of AOL's efforts to winnow down
the amount of content it carries and to derive revenue from the Company Connection area now that it no longer receives revenue based on the time users spend in that area.
If Baudin's online strike gains steam, its participants would, in
addition to refusing to pay the fee, hide their files in the file
library in the forum, hide folders in their message forum and post
a note announcing the strike and the reason for it. The note also
asks for e-mail messages of support to be sent to CompanyCon@aol.com.
The strike would start on Friday.
However, Baudin said late Tuesday that some forum leaders appear to
be pulling out of Company Connection, making a decision on whether
to strike irrelevant |
