Free or Fee? Maybe the Correct Answer is Both Free and Fee

I’m mostly skeptical about the potential of pay walls for newspaper websites.  From a business model perspective, I think it might be better for publishers to build out their news sites as more effective platforms for reaching readers and advertisers.  From a journalist’s perspective, I’d like as many readers as possible to have access to our news stories, and pay walls stand in the way of that goal.  That said, I’m intrigued by the approach The Boston Globe is taking.  The Globe has put most of its content on its free Boston.com site.  However, it recently introduced a new BostonGlobe.com site specifically designed for the newspaper’s most loyal online readers.  The new site has promising technology that adapts the design to the size of the device screen or Web-browser window.  The Globe plans to charge about $4 a week for access to the site starting in mid-October, with free access for print subscribers.  Boston.com, however, will remain a free site with breaking news stories and a selection of content from the newspaper.  It will be interesting to see whether this best-of-both-worlds model can be successful.