Agreed, had the quality of their paper (or of the newspaper industry in general) been similar to what it was even just a decade ago, I believe this could have worked.<p>However, the newspaper industry has been losing quality at a rate equaled only by their loss of readers and one influences the other. This feedback loop they've developed is going to be their death, and unless they can stall this loop, they'll be gone for good, which IMO is a shame.<p>Unless this pay-for effort spurs new life and quality into their articles, I doubt they'll manage to get enough people to pay the prices required. They need to poach would-be payers from other newspapers and hold them as their own. The newspaper industry is entering an evolutionary state, only the hyper-competitive are going to survive this.