Excellent extended analysis of YouTube's business model, why it is doomed to failure and, more generally, why Information Can't Be Free (and certainly not in the sense that Chris Anderson suggests). I'd summarize and steal the free content and post it here, except that I agree with the conclusion of Malcolm Gladwell: Free doesn't work as a business model. When stated that way, yea, it seems obvious, but go read Mr. Gladwell's piece at The New Yorker so that whatever the hell their business model is gets a few pennies, then go read Henry Blodget's analysis of the analysis, which brings up some other examples and is a good read, so that his publication gets whatever it gets when you click on it and read it. The discussion then rages on elsewhere. Fascinating.

As for Videopia, which should be considered an aggregator with some original content, I get nothing from you reading this, so go buy my book. And, incidentally, since my business model sucks, I will say that I believe in finding trusted aggregators for all of your news and think good aggregators are more important than is commonly believed today. The Internet is choke-full-o-crap and aggregators are extremely useful and powerful information filters. We need original reporting, to be certain, and there is a crisis there that needs to be fixed (with money, of course, but from where I don't know), but we also need trusted, reliable, knowledgeable filters.

References:
* Priced to Sell: Is Free the Future?, Malcolm Gladwell, The New Yorker, July 6, 2009.
* Malcolm Gladwell: Chris Anderson Is Wrong About "Free", Henry Blodget, Silicon Alley Insider, Jun. 29, 2009.
* The Debate Continues
* And continues some more... (salon.com)