I was reading this story this morning.

Its not a surprise really, I usually look elsewhere if a site asks me to pay to access content. One which other webmasters may have come across is Experts Exchange where its free to view a question but you have to pay to see the response.

One situation where it seems fair enough is when you subscribe to a magazine, and that subscription also gives you access to an online archive of back-issues.

I think its sensible for mosts popular sites to rely on the model of advertising revenue from high levels of traffic.

Your are right Rob, unless you have some super duper contents that is not available free from anywhere else why the hell should I pay for it?

It's ridiculous to charge for info., you can get somewhere else. I see a lot of gaming sites that do this as well with exclusive interviews, media and downloads and all it does is encourage the audience to obtain the material by other means, if you take my meaning.