A Letter From Phil Tripp

If you haven't yet, go and read the previous two entries (one two) so that this will make much better sense:

Greets again. I see you want to keep this interchange going but unfortunately, I've got a lot on my plate as I just got back frome Melbourne. The typos in my last email were due to me sitting just outside the Virgin lounge, sucking up my emails on the free broadband that leaked through the walls and being in a bit of a rush.

So what's up now...

i'd have to be a bit slow in the head to persist with my 'free' news references
but i would like to ask the REASON the price has been included.

Sure, no problem. Just like the music directory, which is a resource that coasts about a quarter of a million a year in research, post, staff, printing bills and taxes, we have expenses in doing the daily news feed too. So there came a point at which we felt confident that, over a few years of giving the convenience (important word here) of the links that we research each day, we had both a free and a paid model. All we did was take away the free one and give people a choice as to whether they wanted to pay for the convenience. They are not paying for the links, they are willing to exchange value for value in our doing the work in finding news relevant to their career or job direction and providing it to them in a timely and consistent manner.

Sure they could do this themselves, but they see the value in our harvesting the info and delivering it to them. $2 a week or 40 cents a day doesn't seem to disturb them.

In your case, you got the yah yahs because we pulled a convenient resource for you and eleceted to make it a business model.

Oh, and by the way, you referred to the Australasian head of Billboard. That's Christie and he has nothing to do with this. He's a writer for us and many other people, so please correct your blog

I know there was probably a release on the site prior to it happening but, well, I obviously didnt read it.

We did a survey on the site the week before we made our decision and asked about the value people see in it, how long they've been coming, how often and whether they would pay for it. By the results, we made our decision.

Im not pointing the finger and I've now learnt to accept whats happened and lose my outrage.

I think that outrage would have been a wasted emotion here. Why lose stomach lining over someone else who has provided a free service for a long time deciding to get micropayments for it. There are bigger issues you might save outrage for.

Obviously its going well and thats cool but yeah, just a breif (it can be a matter of words) description of the circumstances that led you to this choice. then i will leave you alone forever - i promise!

Tell you what you can do and it will make it easy for you so you don't have to do so many keystrokes... just cut and past this into your blog and your readers can get the drift.(i was gunna do that anyway)

I don't think what we did was of any real consequence in robbing anyone of news or their right to get it. We were not obligated to provide a free service forever. It's kinda like those women you see at the supermarket on Saturday with their electric frypans giving away samples of weenies or other junk food. Just because they are giving you a sample doesn't mean that their business model needs to cater to your desire for a free meal. If you want that, head for Newtown Centre and say Hare Krishna three times...

Adios Amigo.

And there we go. From the horses mouth. Not that Mr Tripp has Equine blood but yes, a thorough answer. He even explained the typos! That I didn't make reference to in the email! Apologies for referring to Christie incorrectly in the previous entry as well. Did I get spanked? Oh yeah. It all makes sense ultimately and while I don't agree with parts of it I can see why the measures have been put in place. I would sincerely (and I'm not being a smart ass) like to thank Phil for participating in this conversation. Someone who's willing to fairly justify their decisions AND take the time to deal with the persistent annoyance and ideologies of a 23 year old with a bit to learn.

The fact that a reference is made to this blog also means that there are people who read this thing. If only the other 4 would start writing again.

Either that or Mr Tripp was 'strengthening his fingers' Googling (sorry Phil, I had to)