Charging for news online won't work if what is provided is the same as is available elsewhere.

What most news people don't comprehend is that most of the public are not heavy information seekers - unlike journalists and the smaller portion of the population that is socially, politically and economically active.

Charging for news online won't work if what is provided is the same as is available elsewhere.

The biggest challenge for newspapers has been that the public has far more choices for news, information, and diversion than in the past.

It is useless to put news agency stories behind the paid curtain because they are available in thousands of other places that will be free.

Even non-commercial media rely on transferring cost to users through licence fees, donations from listeners, viewers, or readers, or grants from companies and foundations that have wrestled their funds from the public in some form of earlier commercial activity.

Merely transferring the content of existing newspapers online and expecting payment won't work because they are two separate business concepts.