Terrible idea. And not just for the usual reactionary "information wants to be free" reasons, but because paying for general news online doesn't work, it's why

Terrible idea. And not just for the usual reactionary "information wants to be free" reasons, but because paying for general news online doesn't work, it's why the washington post, nytimes and even the wall street journal have opened their archives to varying degrees. I still like Dave Winer's idea: open up your archives completely, take away the spinning Flash ads and plaster contextual adsense strips next to each article instead.