I simply believe that information should not be charged for, but rather information found valuable should be rewarded. This allows people assign certain value to particular bits on information. I believe it’s only logical as value is subjective and pricing you podcasts / newsletters you lose listeners/ readers. And many (especially people from the less prosperous countries) are left out.
Discussion
I would love to live in a world where people voluntarily support the things they find valuable. Unfortunately people are not built that way. They take what they can get for free when they can get it. It's built into our biology and psychology. It's not just cultural imo. It's the reason Shareware software died out. It was great *idea* (if you appreciate this software and find it useful you'll pay for it), but almost nobody ever did.
I'm curious to see what stupid easy micro payments much do to this. Paying for shareware was so difficult and scary!