The Price of a Familiar Perspective

Consumers learn how to interpret an information source through repeated exposure. We study how this understanding is priced and how access to historical reports changes competition. In a Gaussian model with inherited customer histories and terminal pricing, the familiar source charges a renewal premium. Better outcome feedback widens the premium when rival reports are inaccessible, but can narrow it once some rival records are available. For independent historical dates, we derive the exact threshold for this reversal. Within the covered interior market, archive opening narrows the premium and raises consumer surplus. Its effect on aggregate forecasting quality and total surplus is less direct: a partial opening can reduce both by reallocating consumers toward a source that remains less informative. Complete access nevertheless improves both outcomes relative to any incomplete archive. The results distinguish the quality of feedback from access to the evidence with which consumers combine it.