I believe you are referring to indirect ways of generating revenue, but recently, publishers seem to be heading more towards direct monetization models. Some examples: News Corp. is giving it a shot with The Daily, the television networks are working with Hulu Plus and the music labels have been selling through iTunes for a while.

Hope I've interpreted your comment correctly, but as far as I know, outside of direct advertisements and collecting data on users that can be sold, there is currently no proven/successful model for monetizing free content.

To speculate, some sort of Gillette model could have potential, but I think it's currently difficult to understand a consumers intent and the types of "add-ons" they would be willing to pay for. Perhaps hard copies of the content that contain something original &/or personalized would have value.

(Back in my investment banking days, I worked on a thought piece with all the various business models for open source; if I recall correctly, I think I managed to find six distinct revenue models. Sadly, I don't have the presentation nor can I remember the other four off the top of my head.)

From the article: "This approach can be mimicked by anything that is made of bits not atoms. It can be applied to writing. It can be applied to music. It can be applied to film. It can be applied to photography, anime, cartoons, etc, etc."

The author is talking about the general business model where the thing made of bits is given away (e.g. the anime made from the bits) and the stuff that costs money to create (e.g. the merchandising made from the atoms) is charged for. Obviously, there is no notion of support for anime, music etc that the author mentions.