Oh man, we are talking about internet base business here.

If it is traditional publish, one book printed out can serve a very limited reader, that why they have to print a lot, a lot. But if it is an online manga, one scan can serve millions of people.

About cost, how must does it cost to scan a chapter compare to print thousands of copy? Of course it is like nothing at all. And it is the same when compare the cost to maintain the site with the cost to maintain the publisher, as well as distribution cost

Let make a simple calculation, OneManga has more than 4 millions reader, and if a site can have only half of them pay 5$ per month , it make 10 millions $ a month. Not to mention revenue from ads. And what if more and more people will come when manga even more popular

And here you put restrict to how mush they can read per week, per month, have them pay some hundred $ to read a full manga. Isn't it a bit too greedy?
It should be 5-7$ to read what ever you want in a month
Otherwise, even if they somehow maintain a group agree to pay higher price, the major of this huge manga community will be lost.

As long as the network effect still there, they can make huge profit even if users pay tiny among. But if they lost it, it is game over, remember the 360 yahoo?

The problem here is that, there are too many publishers to share one cake. It should be no problem if there is only one organization of mangaka, i think

Yeah but OneManga or other actual readonline website host fan translated mangas.
A publisher readonline website will only host what he publish, so the database will be far from what you can have with onemanga for exemple.
But the good thing is that you will always have the possibility to read them. In paper format the main problem, except the cost, is availabilty (the publisher isn't in your country, the manga is already sold out and not reprinted)

i actually really like the idea of a paying online reader as long as it's at a reasonable, affordable fee and has flexible plans. i probably wouldn't pay a monthly fee because *GASP* i actually don't read a whole lot of manga, maybe a couple of chapters of 1-2 titles every few months. im just picky and dont have the time. if i could pay one really cheap single-time viewing fee, i'd do it.

one problem i see is in addition to younger fans being unable to pay for the service--there is, unfortunately, no way the U.S in particular will allow minors to access some of the more mature titles out there. if they could find someway to block it, they will. unfortunately i guess this means that we might be leaving the younger half of manga fans out of the service due to this reason alone ;/ unless there's someway this can be regulated.

in terms of this option somehow being able to stop piracy: it's not. it's just a legal option for those who want to better support the industry, plus also having a possibility of being the easiest way to access manga on the web. despite there still being loads of ways to get music for free, iTunes is still incredibly successful. people want to support the artist and also, some people just cant be bothered with finding other ways to get music for free if the fees are reasonable.

and i dunno about you guys, but i'm old fashioned and there is nothing better than the feel of reading something tangible and solid in your hands. i don't think the printing industry is going anywhere yet.

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i would like the pay-read-manga only if i pay directly the mangaka and not the publisher, and if scanlation gets authorized while the mangaka gets directly supported

like scanlation groups get supported, the same should be done for mangakas

publishers will still exists only for manga to anime process

It's a good idea, but it's not for me. For me, manga has always been easy-to-access, free, and enjoyable.

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not exactly feasible since mangakas use publishers to edit their work, advertise their work and handle public relations and issue deadlines in addition to simply publishing the manga. kind of like every author needs an editor, every athlete needs an agent and every musical artist needs a recording label.

well, most at least. not everyone has money to do all those things on their own ;p

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I wouldn't use it, but it's not because it's a bad idea or anything, it's just me and paying for these subscription things online. I just don't do it.