Boston Globe maybe takes my advice, will start charging for website

Image by Tony the Misfit via Flickr

Well, to be honest, I’m not sure if they are taking my advice. That’s because despite my disdain for micropayments and iTunes models for magazine content, I think there is a case to be made that they might work in a newspaper environment, where news is a valuable, time-sensitive commodity. But setting up a paywall has to be done just right: If the Globe keeps the barriers very low and the price even lower, it might be able to introduce a new revenue stream to its flailing business, and serve as a template for their owners,  The New York Times.

I’ll be curiously watching to see how they implement this, because it’s a huge decision either way it turns out–if the Boston Globe tries to go in the “Times Select” route, or any sort of high-barrier, Google-unfriendly, permanent lockdown style of charging for content, I honestly think they could send themselves right out of business. What was leaked a while back in regards to the Times’ gold/silver special access model of charging is exactly the wrong thing to do. Let’s see if they’ve evolved the model past that into something that could actually work on the web. E&P has the scoop, via the Boston Herald, here:

‘Boston Globe’ to Charge Readers for Web Site.