Monday, September 19, 2005

$$$ for opinions on the net?

"Beginning today, it will cost you to read Maureen Dowd, Tom Friedman, Paul Krugman, David Brooks and 18 other New York Times columnists online--$49.95 a year, to be exact.

But the executive in charge of the move--and perhaps those at other news organizations giving away their material online--hopes the Times can demonstrate, in a traditionally free arena, that money can be made by charging for premium content."

via WashingtonPost.com

I don't see this working at all. There will always be a few bloggers who will access the articles and then report on what they say (or copy and paste it) and, if interesting enough, their content will be distributed throughout the blogosphere in a matter of minutes and people will be able to read it for free.

Am I wrong?