A few weeks ago The Times newspapers (including the Sunday Times) started charging for access to all but their home pages. While other publications such as the FT and Wall Street Journal have had some areas of paid access this is the first time a quality broadsheet has tried it out.
It will be fascinating to see how the model progresses.
I can see a few potential problems however.
I am a Times reader, although not a regular subscriber (since in our part of rural Buckinghamshire delivery is not an option). So despite paying for maybe 95% of the paper issues I would have to pay again (currently up to £104 per year) to view online content, should I wish to re-visit past issues that have been recycled. Maybe the printed paper could publish a daily access code.
Journalists, both staff and freelance, are I gather hopeful that the increased income may finally mean they are paid a decent wage. But one also wonder whether they now have to pay to check their copy (or see what the sub editors have done to it).
Advertisers have no doubt been told that even if the number of online customers has diminished, their quality will have risen. It will be interesting to see whether this is correct, and at least online advertising is measurable - which has always be a problem with print.
Travel companies such as Last Frontiers also find themselves in a tricky position. It is no secret that much travel editorial is funded by tour operators in exchange for a mention (with a few exceptions such as Condé Nast Traveller). A few years ago this would have not been a worry, with most of the response coming from people reading the paper, on paper. These days things are very different - we rarely have many calls immediately after an article is published, but instead get a steady trickle of emails from people whom the search engines have sent to our site.
Google et al., like the rest of us, will not be able to get behind the 'paywall', so will not index the Times' content. This, to me, is the deal-breaker.
I attended a very interesting press evening arranged by LATA (the Latin American Travel Association) last week, with a panel including Michael Kerr (Telegraph), Andy Pietrasik (Guardian Unlimited) and Amanda Statham (Cosmo, You and your Wedding). We asked them all whether they were considering anything similar. All said no, quite emphatically. But if the Times model is seen as a financial success I suspect opinions may change.