Check out Blendle https://blendle.com/
They aren't Apple but they do the pay per article thing.
They aren't Apple but they do the pay per article thing.
I designed such a system in 2012 and was granted a patent for it late last year. I asked a professional about what to do next and the advice was "wait until someone is infringing". Not hugely satisfactory.
I wanted to build the scheme described in the article. My goal was: fix the internet. The way it's paid for breaks it. Fix the money and the rest would follow.
Everyone who's thought about this problem for more than 10 minutes has hit on the same basic business model. I hit on it in 2008, I wasn't the first. Since then I've watched business after business fail in this area. The problem has never been the technology and I'm not sure if a successful shared scheme will ever emerge.
Seems to me like a patent is a good start, a good nucleus around which you could build some venture capital to actually try to start a company to solve the problem.
I totally agree that the problem isn't technology, it's the business side, the negotiation and that end. You'd need a very business-y business partner.
I go back and forth on whether to try and raise funds. It's an all-or-nothing proposition because of my visa status. There are also personal considerations involved.
Having worked for a mixed services/enterprise company, I am now keenly aware that sales is a strategic necessity and steady PR is a massive force multiplier. You can have the best everything in the world, but if nobody's buying, it doesn't matter.