Regarding the price of an online subscription, I think I’d pay quite a lot. The cost of the dead-tree edition of the Times is $644.80 a year ($12.40 a week). An annual subscription to Times Select is $50 a year, but that’s not for the whole paper. If all the Times was paid-only, I’d definitely pay the equivalent of a paper subscription and probably more, because it has many more features, such as searching archives and personalized e-mails.

But the question is, as you say, what will the market bear? I don’t know whether the how-dare-newspapers-ask-me-to-pay crowd is representative of the market. I would hope that they’re just a vocal minority who, for whatever reason, don’t understand that the ability of newspapers to stand up to the government is unique. And the rest will be up to the newspapers to figure out how to get the advertising revenue they need. I don’t envy them.

I'm intrigued by the non-profit business model for newspapers. A free press is a public service and shouldn’t be treated as a bottom line.