In my April 15th post I discussed how, as the expert-centric universe takes hold, we may end up subscribing to individuals (STI), rather than organizations, for the supply of expert information.

But in this May 5th post I said.

The part we don’t have yet is the STI part. The analysts are still part of organizations. And that maybe is how it stays. But I am not sure. Only Time Will Tell. If you know of an independent analyst out there right now, please let me know.

Now, the world-event-coverage-and-analysis (wecan) model splits the event coverage from the analysis of that coverage. And here is an example of two analyst organizations duking it out, as well as a couple of thoughts on the possible consequences.

In this article on the Reuters website  yesterday, Felix Salmon, a Reuters blogger, (@felixsalmon), discussed the potential acquisition by Thomson Reuters of a company called Breakingviews.

The NYT article describing the potential deal identifies them as “the financial commentary Web site.” They describe themselves as providing “award-winning business news commentary and analysis.” They sell subscriptions to their analysis.

So a group of analysts in an organization, selling subscriptions to their analysis. Can STI be far behind?

Well, the first bump in the road is one I noted:

In general, does the organizational back-end infrastructure or even the front-end support mean that the STI model is a non-starter? Don’t know. Yet. More research needed. Maybe the whole STI model just won’t work.

The second is one – what happens if the analysis is free? Paid for by something else? This is not a freemix model, this the add-on model – if you buy our primary product, you get this free. (The BBC is a special case.)

In the case of the new Reuters commentary channel Salmon says this:

we … provide commentary … at the unbeatable price of $0.00. Reuters can afford to do that because … the profits come from terminal sales, and introducing a commentary service adds value to the terminals and makes them easier to sell. It doesn’t need to be priced separately.

Salmon’s article is headed: “Why I think Reuters won’t buy Breakingview.” It will be interesting to see whether Breakingview does get bought by Reuters or, if not, whether it has enough expertise on board to survive the attack of $0.00.

Only time will tell whether a single analyst will have enough expertise to be able to break free from either organization and set up on his or her own and charge a subscription.

Even if that happens, if the second-place expert goes to a freemix business model the first will be hard-pressed not to do so. The difference in their expertise will have to be sufficient to justify the STI model vs. the freemix model.