Posted by EwingsGlass:

So, Newsday is moving to a subscription model requiring payment to view their webcontent. Completely ridiculous. I like reading Alan Hahn's articles, but not enough to subscribe to the other crap they write. I am curious whether Hahn's articles/blog will be part of the unrestricted content on the site.

Wow sounds like a discussion i had online 12 years ago and almost everyone was on the same page. I will NEVER EVER pay for content like a newspaper or a magazine online EVER or the radio. I haven't seen Howard Stern in years--guess what who cares???? there is way more than ENOUGH FREE content online that--remember you have to PAY to get online right????--to keep you more than occupied. Now if you have to pay to get online then start having to pay for every service--then the whole deal goes bad. People don't have the money to pay for online news or anything else for that matter. Pay for view cotent like Newsday will NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER work. Might as well sell the paper.

Posted by Moonangie:

I pay for the New York Times online. But it's well worth the $15 per year. No more recycling newsprint. I wouldn't pay shyte for Alan's articles, though I sometimes read them.

Beginning Wednesday, most of Newsday.com content will only be available to subscribers of Optimum Online, Newsday, or those willing to pay for it.

Those who are not customers of Optimum Online or the newspaper - both owned by Bethpage-based Cablevision Systems Corp. - will have to pay a $5 weekly fee. However, nonpaying customers will have access to some of newsday.com's information, including the home page, school closings, weather, obituaries, classified and entertainment listings. There also will be some limited access to Newsday stories.

Newsday described the move as one that would create a "pioneering Web model," combining the newspaper's newsgathering services with Cablevision's electronic distribution capabilities. About 75 percent of Long Island households are Newsday home delivery or Cablevision online customers or both, according to Newsday. Optimum Online customers total 2.5 million in the New York area, the paper said.

"We are excited about this model because in addition to a unique ability to immediately reach about 75 percent of Long Island households, we believe the hyper-local approach is right for Long Island," said Debby Krenek, Newsday managing editor and senior vice president/digital.

The new strategy comes as newspapers have been scrambling to replace the advertising-based model after years of steep revenue decline. Charging viewers for online content has been debated in the newspaper industry in the past few years.

Jack Myers of Jack Myers Media Business Report, a Manhattan-based economic research firm, said, "In the long term, it's a zero-sum game. Basically what you are doing is you are shutting off younger audiences from getting access and becoming fans of your content, so it strikes me as a pretty short-term protective measure that will be a great case study for the industry."

However, John Morton, head of the Morton Research Inc., a Silver Spring, Md.-based media consulting firm, said the current model of free online content is not a "rational model."

"Despite the false premise that has been floating around for the last 19 years, that information on the Internet wants to be free, [it] is just not true," Morton said. "People have always been willing to pay for information they have felt was useful to them."