Will we pay to read the news?

The Dirty Digger has spoken.  It is the end of free access to News International websites:

Quality journalism is not cheap.  The digital revolution has opened many new and inexpensive distribution channels but it has not made content free. We intend to charge for all our news websites.

Just who is going to pay for general news that is easily obtained elsewhere?  Is Murdoch serious wanting to charge an annual fee to access a complete newspaper site?  It just will not work.  People will just go elsewhere, as the younger generation already do.  So what if you can’t read your favourite columnist on-line.  It is hardly a show stopper.  Is The Times going to charge for viewing blogs such as Comment Central?

With so much free content, the BBC, Google, blogs etc. people will just give up reading newspapers and they will lose any of their remaining influence.  Maybe there is a case for charging for specialist content and investigative journalism, but paying for general news, comment and newspaper blogs?  The answer has to be no.