$3.99 a week to read the Boston Globe digital

The Boston Globe will erect a paywall around part of its content, hoping to attract some cash. Its owner, the New York Times did a similar thing earlier this year and the story linked above notes that the Times has had 224,000 readers sign up for the service. A newspaper analyst is quoted as saying, “They all now realize they made a grievous mistake years ago when they put everything on the Web for free." Maybe, but this does not address the spur that all newspapers felt from those like Yahoo and simple indy publishers to do the job for free. It's easy to argue that too many paywalls will create a "free vacuum" that will be quickly filled by the free services. You decide. Better yet, comment.