Give College Content Away, Attract the Best and Brightest

In a new book, the editor of a prominent technology magazine argues that colleges should make some of their product free to all. Chris Anderson, editor of Wired magazine, says in Free: The Future of a Radical Price, that “free content is marketing. Top students get their pick of schools. Sampling the mind-blowing fare of a particular program or professor can win them over.”

Says Mr. Anderson, give away the lectures and sell something else. Remember the Gillette model? Give away the razor and sell the blades. But others, like Malcolm Gladwell, disagree with Mr. Anderson’s model. And many of the comments posted to the Chronicle of Higher Education story suggest that those creating the content that would be given away have serious objections to the model.