Google has just confirmed that it is working on a micropayment system for Newspaper Association of America based on Google Checkout. This is good news for the industry and not-so-bad news if pricing will indeed be ‘micro’.

How about ‘micro earnings?’ No doubt that as user generated content becomes core to newspaper offerings we will soon start reading about reward schemes enabling people to earn access to content.

I know little about economy but these seem to be the basic ingredients of a market economy. So why not make things a little bit more interesting and allow that economy to develop? Here are a few ideas that may or may not work for an online newspaper:

• Establish a currency (eg. the New York Times dollars – $NYT) can be bought and sold and perhaps even tied to the value of the newspaper in terms of real $$$
• Allow members to earn $NYT by contributing content and posting comments (different rates would apply) and spend them buying access to content, features, games, etc… or even exchange $NYT between themselves
• Allow members to pool together and invest in the production of special reports and earn a % of the revenue the reports generate
• Establish affiliate schemes members can earn from
• Prize giveaways

This doesn’t sound too far-fetched if you’ve tried Second Life. If you haven’t, have a look at their market data.

Newspapers would generate revenue from selling content as well as taking a small % of every transaction. I wonder if this scenario would help create a stronger bond between the brand and the user too.