Newspapers used to have one very simple business model: produce good journalism, print copies and sell them to people. Then along came the internet and suddenly these same newspapers started giving all their content away free. They were hoping to gain advertising revenue online but have failed to break even from their ventures. Here's a look at what some of the big papers in Britain are doing and comparing it to the New York Times' new paywall/payfence solution.
 

The Times

 
My favorite newspaper The Times (of London) recently stopped giving out free news and introduced a paywall. A paywall means you can't access any content without paying either a daily, weekly or monthly subscription online. As a result, they have lost the bulk of their traffic to the site but have gained 'tens of thousands' of paywall subscribers. They have yet to report whether they are doing well enough with this paywall, I think it's a long term plan and the order has come straight from the top of News Corporation, i.e. Rupert Murdoch.
 

The Financial Times

  
The FT have led by an encouraging example. Their payfence was set up a few years ago. I believe you are allowed to look at five articles per month for free and then stump up a fee if you want to keep reading. Their digital revenue has gone up by 50% since 2006 and they now have more than 200,000 online subscriptions. Their revenue model is currently 55% from subscriptions and 45% from advertising. We need to bear in mind that this publication is all about business, meaning companies can easily justify forking out for their employees to read the FT online.
   

The New York Times

  
My second favorite newspaper The New York Times announced their new payfence last week, it's a hybrid model where you will have to pay for reading more than 20 articles online. Any more than that and it's up to the reader to pay for a subscription. The Gray Lady is hoping this will be a good compromise between giving free content and locking everything down.
 
One very interesting feature of the New York Times model is that they allow you to read an unlimited number of articles as long as you click on links from social media, meaning a tweet, a Facebook update or a blog link. This is obviously designed to ensure the newspaper stays a part of the online conversation among influencers and normal folks. We'll have to give the NYT at least six months to evaluate their new approach, I shall keep a close eye on their progress and report back.
  
 

The Guardian

 
  
Another London newspaper is The Guardian who have a different model, they give all their content away like it's 1999. By doing this the paper has amassed a huge audience which they are trying to monetize with advertising revenue. The results thus far are not encouraging, the Guardian is leeking money and their online edition is leading the down the abyss. I would think there will come a time where they have to draw a line in the sand and do something radical. This could be to either sack half of their journalists or it could be to introduce a paywall of some sort, the Guardian's business model online isn't viable as it stands today.
  

The other free options

  
There are plenty of other newspapers online that give out free content just like the Guardian, seek and you shall find them. Beyond newspapers you can always use Google News which aggregates stories from all online sources, obviously with the exclusion of The Times and other paywall publications.
 
Then there are the bloggers, most of whom are more than happy to give out free content for a bit of recognition in return. The Huffington Post is a news blog that relies on free contributions by fairly well known people such as Deepak Chopra. Because they don't have to pay any journalists they are able to stay free and just charge advertisers instead of readers.
 
Finally, there is always the good old Beeb online - BBC News is a good site with plenty of newspaper-like content. This site is Rupert Murdoch's pet hate, he says it distorts competition because it's free. What he fails to realize is that British people pay for it via the TV license.
  

My experience

  
I used to read the Times online but I'm not ready to pay for it, although I do get the paper delivered on weekends. Instead I read news on other sites like the BBC, Google News and wherever I get recommended to read something via Twitter or LinkedIn. 20 articles for free on the New York Times is more than enough per month I think - especially since most web users have the attention span of a gnat (well I know I do!).
 
Do you pay for news online? Please let me know what you think of it!