Posted
6:52 PM
by Gene
This ad ran in Paidcontent.org. The notion that there should be paid walls around news content is self-defeating. Nearly every publication that has tried it has failed, save the weird exception of
Consumer Reports, which is (more or less) non-commercial; the
Wall Street Journals persist with it due to pride and stubbornnesas, and they've quickly taken the backseat to
BusinessWeek and
Forbes. Advertising gives Web publishers an out, and audiences an in. It wouldn't hurt to try it.