Next up to charge: The Boston Globe

I think the big get is the "unique content" each site has. That has to be the selling point - because as a few people have pointed out, you can get gamers and notes anywhere.

The Globe is lucky enough to be one of the bigger papers in the country, so they can probably get away with charging for their content where another mid-sized paper in Massachusetts can't. If your paper has content like gamers and a notebook - chances are readers either a) watched the game themselves b) saw the recap on the news/ESPN or c) read about it online already (ESPN/Yahoo!/etc.

So you need to have outstanding columnists you can't read anywhere else as well as go into exploring for online content. The Globe has an outstanding Pats' blog done by Mike Reiss (and Chris Gasper, et. al.) - would people pay, say, $20/year to read it? Maybe. A lot will depend on the price structure.

What if they did the model where your first 20 clicks are free, but you start paying for the 21st and so on? That might be another way to go as well, that way the gamers and notes are getting read by a wide audience.

Interesting to see where this plays out.

 

No, you wouldn't. ESPN, Yahoo, etc, would carry only AP gamers and major press conferences. MLB.com would never report anything about potential firings, bad GM moves, negative news, etc. Kubato would be your only hope for "independent" news, and what are the odds that the Orioles' broadcast partner wants to air all of the team's dirty laundry?

 

So Buster Onley, Jayson Stark, Danny Knobler, Scott Miller, Ken Rosenthal, Gordon Edes, etc. NEVER have anything on the Orioles? MLB.com actually has some good writers, including some national guys (I'm not sold on the O's guy; I currently don't read him because I don't have to with the Sun's coverage, but that would easily change). And have you ever actually read Roch Kubato's blog? Judging by your comment I'm going to say no.

Like I said, would it be better? No. Could I deal with it. Hell, yes.

 

i'm of the opinion that newspapers have to find ways to draw advertisers to your site and make money from them. money can be made off the web sites if newspapers can find creative ways to make money from its advertisers. readers are incensed enough with higher subscription and delivery rates. charging for online content is only going to drive them farther away.