[p2p-research] Slashdot | Paywalls to Drive Journalists Away in Addition to Consumers?

[Paul D. Fernhout]

http://news.slashdot.org/story/09/11/02/168232/Paywalls-to-Drive-Journalists-Away-in-Addition-to-Consumers
"With news organizations struggling and newsroom jobs disappearing, each 
week brings new calls from writers and editors who believe their employers 
should save themselves by charging for Internet access. However, in an 
interesting turnabout, the NY Times reports that Saul Friedman, a journalist 
for more than 50 years and a columnist for Newsday since 1996, announced 
last week he was quitting after Newsday decided that non-subscribers to 
Newsday's print edition will have to pay $5 a week to see much of the site, 
making it one of the few newspapers in the country to take such a plunge. 
'My column has been popular around the country, but now it was really going 
to be impossible for people outside Long Island to read it,' he says. 
Friedman, who is 80, said he would continue to write about older people for 
the site 'Time Goes By'. 'One of the reasons why the NY Times eventually did 
away with its old "paywall" was that its big name columnists started 
complaining that fewer and fewer people were reading them,' writes Mike 
Masnick at Techdirt. 'Newspapers who decide to put up a paywall may find 
that their best reporters decide to go elsewhere, knowing that locking up 
their own content isn't a good thing in terms of career advancement.'"
Embedded links:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/02/business/media/02elderly.html
http://ronnibennett.typepad.com/
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20091101/1842486752.shtml

--Paul Fernhout
http://www.pdfernhout.net/
http://www.beyondajoblessrecovery.org/