>>This rumor has been bouncing around for a while now - but it looks like it might actually come true...
>>http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/01/19/cnet.new.york.times.online.charge/index.html?hpt=Sbin
>>
>>I'll be interested to see if this works - although I won't be one of the people willing to pay. I would think that with the bleek outlook for newspapers these days that they would attempt to find a form of revenue that doesn't piss off all their readers...ha
>
>I think this will be the trend for many newspapers: increasing price for paper edition and charging for on-line readership. It makes business sense. They number of subscribers will go down but the printing cost will be reduced too. And those who don't want to buy paper edition will pay for online. Unless they are you <g>. In the end the papers will be profitable as should be any business.

I have a much more dubious outlook about their profitability. They have been hemorrhaging money and I don't see any reason that trend should reverse. The cost of newsprint has been a factor, one they reflexively turn to when explaining price increases, but their larger problem is not newsprint. It's the internet. There are a million news outlets now and most of them don't charge a thing.