Mark Glaser of Mediashift and Tim Porter of First Draft have an interesting conversation going regarding the viability of paid online newspaper content.

Glaser kicked off the debate with a post calling for the NY Times to end their Times Select product:
Mr. Sulzberger, Tear Down This (TimesSelect) Wall!

Porter followed with a defense of the Times need to actually make money off their Internet endeavors:

The bottom line (which both agree on) is newspapers are not on the Internet to do charity work. The problem is - the Web is only 16-years-old and no one really knows what the correct business model is yet.

Glaser is advocating a broadcast-TV approach: give away the content and monetize the eyeballs through advertising.

Porter seems to lean toward the paid circulation/cable-TV model: mixing subscription revenues for premium content with advertising.

The fun of it is - there is no answer but it sure is going to be interesting watching everyone figure it out over the next 10-years or so.

My guess - the Times can get away with charging a premium, but most newspapers will have to rely on advertising revenue and (hopefully) some incremental revenues from products and services that may not have even been invented yet. How's that for optimism?