Set News Free (For Only $49.95 A Year)

Post tech columnist Leslie Walker has the latest in the “to charge or not to charge” debate in terms of newspapers’ online content.

Speaking at California conference this week, Dow Jones’ Peter Kann–which has about 730,000 subscribers to the paid online version of the WSJ–said that newspapers could help to offset the online issue by charging more for the paper version: “No one in this room thinks twice about spending $2 to buy a bad cup of coffee walking through an airport, yet most newspaper publishers are wary over even getting their single-copy price up to a dollar.”

The head of NYT Digital meanwhile argued that the news TimeSelect program, where subscribers will pay $49.95 a year for access to the op-ed columnists and the archives is a steal at the “cost of roughly two and a half martinis.” The guy has obviously been in New York for too long–in D.C., you could totally purchase three full martinis for $50.

Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews.