Posted 5:02 PM by Gene

Approximately every six months a big media Web site plays tricks with its contents to try to make people pay for what they'd otherwise get for free. The Times of London tried it; it failed. The LALATimes tried with its arts coverage; it failed. Now THE PAPER OF RE-CORD will charge for its windbags. This has a chance of working because it's a bad idea surrounded by a (possibly) good thing -- total access to the PAPER's archive for an annual fee. But PINCH had better beware; not only will it cut hits in the short run, it may reduce its righteous headbangers to oblivion. Everyone had the fool Robert "Beat Me" Fisk on his lips until the Independent charged for his disservices. Who hears of him now? Not that the PAPER's assorted FOOLS don't deserve oblivion, to be sure; they're so predictable I will not miss them. Indeed with the superabundance of opinion and the increasing ossification of the PAPER's talking airheads one wonders if PINCH isn't shooting Himself in the foot, even if He is pro-gun-control.

And even in the long run this may not work when if finally becomes technologically feasible for all newspapers to open their archives for free. Not long ago e-mail accounts were 3MB. Now they're 1GB. The same economies of scale will make charging for archives increasingly untenable.

BYE GLIBERAL! It was nice knowing your STROKES.