信奉新聞市場理論的壹傳媒總裁黎智英，宣稱其旗下媒體乃以「讀者至上」為最高指導原則，「閱聽人要什麼，我們就給什麼」。但以經濟學「外部性」 (externalities) 概念觀之，欲宣稱「給閱聽人想要的」，則須合宜地掌握商品的外部性問題。本文以台灣《壹週刊》為研究對象，藉由法律案例分析法，分析40筆《壹週刊》被告案例發現，《壹週刊》對其報導對象創生了不少外部成本，且在法律對新聞自由的保護下，受害者鮮少得以透過法律途徑求取補償。本文亦發現，台灣目前對於新聞商品外部性常見的處理機制—法律求償，顯然不足以使媒體擁有誘因採取更高的損害預防措施。在此情況下，閱聽人對《壹週刊》「給讀者想要的」這樣的宣稱，應採保留態度。

Mr. Jimmy Lai, President of Taiwan Next Magazine, claims that the Next Weekly’s editorial policy is based on the needs of its customers. He often stated that “Giving the audience what they want.”. This notion can only reflect in paritial facts within some cost constraint. More specifically, the audience could only get what they want if they are willing to pay the costs. The result of this study indicated that there were many external costs generated by Taiwan Next Magazine to its news subjects, according to the theory of the verdicts in “Law and Regulations Retrieving Systems”. In the conclusion, the market eventually could not satisfy completely and provide exactly what the audience need.