While the poll may seem unscientific, it was relying on the principle articulated in James Surowiecki's The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations. The principle says that "a diverse collection of independently-deciding individuals is likely to make certain types of decisions and predictions better than individuals or even experts." (Cribbed from Wikipedia.)

So what conclusions can we draw? The fact that a self-selected group of people who are interested in the future of newspapers are overwhelmingly pessimistic about paywalls doesn't seem to bode well for the idea.

We could be wrong, of course. But then there's this telling little anecdote, contributed in the poll comments:

Two weeks ago, my boyfriend and I were eating dinner with friends when their 7-year-old son asked each of us to share a joke. His mom chimed in with an oldie - "What's black and white and (read) all over?" The punchline died though when she paused to ask him if he knew what a newspaper was. He didn't.