Today, they launched an entirely new Readability service: you pay a small fee each month, and they give most of the proceeds to the authors of the pages you choose (by using the Readability bookmarklet on them, or adding them in other ways). It’s a great way for readers to support web publishers, big and small, directly and automatically.
Readability is a fantastic service to begin with, and this just really is a potential game-changer for online publishing. Readability has figured out an easy way to handle micropayments to content providers online. You pay a flat monthly fee to Readability. 30% goes to Readability, and 70% will be distributed to content creators/publishers based directly on what content you send to Readability (either to read now or to read later). I love this idea, and signed up for the service immediately.
Things will become even more interesting when Marco launches the Instapaper iPhone and iPad apps that tie into Readability’s service.
