Skinnier
"So many things that would have been money losers then can be profitable today.
When you run your own concert, selling tickets online and renting the theatre out yourself, you might be able to keep 85 cents of every dollar your audience spends on a ticket. In the current system, by the time the box office, Ticketmaster, the stagehands, the promoters and everyone else takes a cut, you might end up with literally nothing.
Or consider a hardcover book that costs $20. By the time the bookstore keeps half, the publisher keeps a share for the risk she takes, and don't forget shipping and returns... there might only be $2 left for the author. With an ebook, the author might keep as much as $14 a copy... More if he hosts the store and sells it as a PDF.
A hairdresser with direct relationships with customers can give up the storefront location and make more money by charging less and cutting the hair in her home.
A newspaper can happily support a few reporters and an ad guy if it gives up the paper, the offices and the rest of the trappings.
Too often, we look at the new thing and demand to know how it supports the old thing. Perhaps, though, the question is, how does the new thing allow us to think skinnier."
