Nothing's Free

There seems to be somewhat of a consensus among media critics and columnists (add this piece in the Wall Street Journal to a headliner in Time) that publications should be able to eventually charge for online content without being chastized by the "free information" folks. Those would be the people who yell at every turn that information was meant to be free.

I'll save the great philosophical debate for another post, but I've gone on record in support of any plans to monetize online content -- so long as it's material that's above and beyond typical work. I've also gone on record repeating the economic truism that it's hard to start charging for something you've given away for free.

But hard's time has come. Anyone want to be the first into the pool?