Paid-for Online newspapers the future?

The Times and Sunday Times newspapers have decided to start charging users for the online service. Some predict that this move will change the course of online newspapers forever.
News International owns these two newspapers. It stated that an online subscription will cost $1.43 per day, or $2.87 per week. Right now, there is a free trial period and the "paywall" will begin in June. Murdoch, chairman and CEO of News Corp. (News International's parent company) said the free access model was not working. "We are now in the midst of an epochal debate over the value of content and it is clear to many newspapers that the current model is malfunctioning," he said. Some people are wondering whether people will pay this price when there is so much other news available.

I believe that it is actually useless to start charging users online unless the business is sure that everyone will fall in with this idea. If there are many other newspapers that are free, there is no reason to stay with these companies. Unless there is a regulation or contract that forces all businesses to charge for the online services, it is a very risky move to try to start charging people for something that they are used to getting for free. Although the point of this is to make more profit, it might actually make them lose.

www.cnn.com/2010/BUSINESS/05/26/britain.times.online.paywall/index.html