One of the various ways that media organizations make money is by selling special reports. These include technical white papers from Information Week or the various guides from Vice or the very high-end business data from The Economist or the dubious quality “info products” from Internet marketers. I’ve written about this before.
I’ve been thinking about doing something like this for a while, but have never been sure what I could cover that would be of interest here. Then it occurred to me: life extension. I’ve covered a number of studies on how to improve your own longevity, and I’ve been following the transhumanist thing with some interest for years. I could do a “premium dossier” covering everything from practical longevity to Kurzweilian ideas. Studies covered would use the rating system I proposed earlier.
It would probably be between 20 and 40 pages, and cost, say, $23 (it’s called “premium” for a reason). It would be available in multiple formats – PDF, epub, HTML, etc. No copy protection.
It would happen when it happens – I’m still plenty busy writing for ReadWriteWeb, it would take a while to write an extra 20-40 pages on the side. That’s part of why I’m asking in advance about interest.
What do you think?