I really hope this works for them. I subscribe to LWN and don't mind paying for things that I find valuable (even news). I also like the idea of the reader being the real customer instead of the advertiser.<p>But I don't think it <i>will</i> work.<p>The problem is that the 50¢ a copy we used to pay was never the real money maker for newspapers. What made the business so fat was the near-monopoly control they had over many components of local advertising. That control is gone and it's never coming back.