ronin - 9:39 pm on Jul 2, 2010 (gmt 0)

<aside>

The BBC provide reasonably impartial and well researched news for free.

That's the second time someone in this thread has mentioned that BBC content is free, and it's not the case.

They are funded by the UK tax payer.

Not quite but close enough. The BBC is funded by the UK TV-owner. In the UK you can consume BBC media from both a radio and an internet-connected PC and you won't pay the BBC a penny.

Nevertheless, BBC content is decidedly not free. Someone is paying for it. Even if it isn't you.
</aside>

Back to The Times... A number of UK news journals (The Financial Times, The Economist) have introduced pay-for content in the last couple of years with a relative degree of success. The point though, surely, as one or two posters on this thread have already pointed out, is that this pay-for content cannot be found elsewhere.

I too am sceptical that attempting to charge the public for reading re-written newswire reports will last long before the public gets wise to the fact that the newswire reports are themselves publicly accessible at no cost.