[WikiEN-l] Online Newspapers Considering Subscription Model

[Fred Bauder]

> This is still up in the air but it has been mentioned on UK television
> news in various contexts recently: because the business model of free
> online newspapers funded by advertising doesn't seem to be brining in
> the bucks, there is much discussion in the media as to whether online
> newspapers will start charging their customers.
>
> It's just this second struck me that this could have dire consequences
> for Wikipedia. Presumably we have millions of citations that point to
> online newspaper content. If they decide to put their archives behind
> a pay wall, what's going to happen to those citations? Are we going to
> say that we accept that people will have to pay if they now wish to
> verify a statement? Or are we going to have to a) laboriously
> re-reference everything and b) lose a great deal of content that we've
> been unable to find alternative citations for?
>
> Arguably I'm jumping the gun here. But it may be worth discussing in
> advance as I reckon this issue isn't going to go away.
>
> Does anyone think I should post this to the 'Foundation' mailing list
> too?
>

All that is required is a reliable source, properly cited; not a free
source.

Whatever happens to the newspaper business, there will be mass
distribution of the information they generate; otherwise, the new, viable
business plan would not work.

Fred