This is an article glorifying one exception in a sea of rules. This article gives the false impression that a paywall is a good idea for news sites, (and perhap

This is an article glorifying one exception in a sea of rules. This article gives the false impression that a paywall is a good idea for news sites, (and perhaps some will extend this to any kind of site, pointing to the success of the NYT). The NYT can rely on its name: we all know it's good, and its been around forever. Their target audience is the educated middle-upper-class. Many will pay, and they'll make money. But very few existing news organizations could successfully implement a paywall, and zero new organizations could. The only really successful business model on the internet has been "freemium", and free, but ad-based: Google, Facebook, etc. So this one exception occurs; great. But I'm saying lets not all get excited and start suggesting that next tech startup launch with a paywall. "But the NYT did it successfully" will be their last words.