@Envy:
Lol. Yeah. We shouldn't have to pay to consume products. What a nonsensical idea that is!
And despite my paragraph dedicated directly to someone making the "LOL Y U NO PAY" argument, the comment gets made anyways.
Business models for audio/visual entertainment (read: magazines, news, tv shows, movies, games) are rapidly switching to models in where profit can be made without the direct money of the people consuming the product (or at the very least money is not the first barrier to entry). Because those models see far higher user participation than typical "pay-to-enter" models do at this point.
If you're crafting a brand new business model in the year 2012 for one of the industries listed above, your model should not be expecting direct payment from the consumer for the core product. Rather, your model should be capitalizing on the trend of providing the core product for free (via solid advertising models), and perhaps looking towards optional and auxillary services to charge the consumer for.
An example of which (read: a non-fail business model VIZ could embark on), would be providing 5 weeks worth of (including the newest chapters) JUMP releases as an advertisement supported free service. They could then offer users access to the entire library of their titles + access to an advertisement free website for a small premium fee if they were so interested. Essentially this would be the manga/literature equivalent of what many successful free-to-play models do now in gaming circles.
In the end though, it doesn't really matter if you agree with me or not. The vast majority of people who read manga online will continue to read it for free, and do so without ever engaging any of VIZ's services. VIZ will only profit as soon as they switch to a model in where the core product is free. That's the reality of the situation, and there's nothing VIZ can do to change that.
–- Update From New Post Merge ---
@GJardim:
All internet stores should handle their stuff for free, that's the only sane thing to do! Reason: Can't wait to buy my PS3 on amazon without paying! Taxes? That's bs!
Equating infinitely reproducible digital data to finite fixed physical product is the height of idiocy.