From 1981, a KRON-TV (San Francisco) report about newspapers investing money in getting the news “online”.  My favorite is the classic rotary phone handset to modem, and the caption under the interview of a user of the service which reads, “owns home computer.”

TechCrunch:  You Need To See This Video.

Of course, the representative from the San Franicisco examiner says that they’re not in it to make money, but are probably not going to lose a lot…

Figuring out the technology before attempting to monetize must be an arcane practice.