Vint Cerf, the Google chief evangelist widely credited as one of the Internet's pioneers, is entering the micropayment-for-news fray by suggesting (well, hinting) that journalism ought to try a fee-for-something approach.

The Internet News site interprets his quote as suggesting that an iTunes-style approach ought to be the route. It's not clear, though, exactly what he's advocating, because there is no direct quote. He notes that media, and particularly newspapers, need new models of distribution and new forms of revenue.

"Exploring alternative forms of distribution is absolutely essential," he told a conference on innovation in journalism. "If there's no way to reward intellectual property, it will be difficult to come by."

Howls are already in the blogosphere over David Carr's column today in the New York Times on news needing an iTunes model --- a way to get people accustomed to getting content free to suddenly pay for it.

The premise that advertising is going to pay for the content is increasingly under attack. What Carr wonders is if something can rearrange the dynamic sufficiently to pay for news.

Most of the criticism of the idea will be obvious: News is not the durable good that music is, so the notion of paying for something you might use only once isn't all that attractive to consumers. Like music, too, there is an abundance of free content that isn't likely to go back into the premium stable.

It's interesting how many people won't reopen the idea of pay-for-view. Their view is that the debate is long over.

Journalism comes in all shapes and sizes today. At the beginning of the decade, few could imagine the podcast, and yet all sorts of conventional media (like us) produce them (here are some from our staff at The Vancouver Sun, including one from our gardening writer, Steve Whysall).
Which is a roundabout way of discussing the cataclysmic change in music sales. Where a decade ago we were riveted by the massive change in music marketing through superstore chains like HMV, Virgin and the fledgling Wal-Mart initiatives, these days the most booming music retailer is Apple and its iTunes application.
A new report suggests 40 per cent of all music sales will be digital by 2012. Wired.com, extrapolating that data to reflect current market conditions, surmises that iTunes will corral fully one-quarter of the sales pie.
No one has surfaced to challenge Apple's dominance. But then again, a few years is a long time in any industry.