TODAY, THE NYT...COULD THE LEDGER, TRIB, SENTINEL, OR HERALD BE NEXT???

The latest Business Week informs us that the New York Times has been considering charging a fee for visitors to view content on it's Web site. It is a debate which has apparantly raged within the organization for awhile, but a spokesperson is saying that there are no immediate plans to charge subscription rates at present.

But a voice apparantly in favour of such a move is Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., who was quoted in the story as saying, "It gets to the issue of how comfortable are we training a generation of readers to get quality information for free. That is troubling."

If the Times does eventually make such a move, it won't be long before other newspapers follow suit. The New York Times Company owns several newspapers in Florida, including the Lakeland Ledger, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Ocala Star-Banner, and Gainesville Sun. Of course, the idea would be to generate more profit, but such a move could be a double-edged sword. Subscription fees would mean less visitors, which would then turn off many online advertisers to the idea. While the Times points to the rival Wall Street Journal and it's success at gaining paid subscribers for it's Web site, they forget that the Journal is a niche media, dealing with business/market news and catering to a very specific audience.