(Annette Moser-Wellman) The road to Internet revenue is littered with pay-for-premium-content failures. The most visible was the New York Times' TimesSelect, which charged for access to special content online. Two years after it was launched, it was abandoned in September 2007 because, of course, there was more money to be had in advertising revenue than online subscriptions.

And remember when Rupert Murdoch bought the Wall Street Journal that same year? The ubiquitous buzz on the street was that he was going to abandon subscriptions and make content free online - because of course, there was more money to be had in advertising revenue than in online subscriptions.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the Internet. The WSJ online still prices its online subscription at $99 per year (and with print on promotion). What the heck happened? Either News Corp management figured it was too hard to make money through online advertising OR subscription revenue was so lucrative it was hard to walk away from it.

Either way, the WSJ example is proof positive that the days of "walled garden" content are not over. It seems that paying for premium content may be making a small but perceptible comeback. Perhaps the 'free news lunch' is slowly becoming a thing of the past?

Listen to Staci D. Kramer, Co-Editor and Executive Vice President of paidcontent.org, a site that provides global coverage of the business of digital content. "One of the things on the horizon (for news organizations) is better ways of making use of what we already do. How do you make the most of what you have now? A lot of people didn't like TimesSelect but it was in many respects the right model. Take something that people want and see if they are willing to pay for it separately. What you're seeing now are a number of publications and a number of new models trying to tap into that concept of premium subscription."

Last year when I interviewed John Skipper, Senior Vice President and General Manager of ESPN.com, he talked about the success of ESPN Insider and ESPN 360. The Insider offers premium content online for a subscription fee that complements the free EPSN.com site. Skipper said, "We believe ESPN Insider to be the second largest subscriber-based content business on the Internet after the Wall Street Journal." A second complementary Website, ESPN 360, is a broadband Internet service that is available only through Internet service providers. EPSN generates revenue through its partnership with the ISPs.

And if we want to get granular, this trend of fee-for-content extends to services as well. Consider Craigslist. Yes, Craigslist, the classified site that eviscerated the easy revenue of newspaper advertising by creating an online place for free postings. Have you tried to list a job lately? Be prepared to pay $25 to $75 per job "category" depending on your metro location. To adequately describe a new position, you'll need to pony up multiples of that fee. How is that cheaper than the old days of newspaper listings?

So my point here is that the concept of strictly "free" content and even online services may be slowly becoming a thing of the past. Internet companies need to make money, too. And just as start-ups like Facebook, LinkedIn and others find ways to hook you and then find clever ways to monetize the mass audience, free content can't be sustained over time without adequate revenue. So go ahead and find ways to charge for premium content. Experiment with ideas that your consumers might be willing to pay for. Because sooner or later the economists are always right. There is no such thing as a free lunch.


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Annette Moser-Wellman is President of Firemark, Inc., an innovation consultancy, and author of Running While The Earth Shakes: Creating An Innovation Strategy To Win In The Digital Age, published by the Media Management Center. She teaches in MMC's Advanced Executive Program and Digital Strategies for Media Executives seminar.

This TechScout article is part of a new series of Moser-Wellman interviews commissioned by the Media Management Center to explore opportunities and insights at the intersection of technology and the news media. A book, "Six Competencies of the Next Generation News Organization," and workshops - both based on the TechScout research - will debut November 11.

Click here to view other articles in the TechScout series.