engine - 12:33 pm on Jan 18, 2010 (gmt 0)

News is different from other aspects as news is news. Anyone can report on it. Not everyone can write opinion pieces about the news, and each news source brings its own slant on news opinion. If you like a particular writer, you'll follow what they do.

Paywall ideas aren't going to work with news we can get everywhere else, unless everyone does it. But paywall might work with opinion pieces.

Part of the problem with losing the traffic through a paywall is that the ad inventory will drop.

Publishers were wealthy, successful businesses earning big bucks for their shareholders. The Internet has changed all that, and the end result is that newspapers and magazines have to find a lower cost model.

Paywall, ad revenue model, or a combination of them both, and other methods, may well end up being the income model of the future.

Will it work? Only by trying it will anyone know.