I was trolling through my feed reader, and came across this article.

I would love to give you a run down of the piece, and provide an in depth analysis of the writer’s finer points, but I can’t.  Globe and Mail wants to charge me CAD$4.95 plus tax for the privelege of downloading the article – and only then for 30 days.

Excuse me?  Has the staff at Globe and Mail been living in a cave? Or gone off the deep end?

Nobody charges for online content, and certainly not $5.  Every heard of iTunes?  The magical $0.99 number is not ideal for a news article, but still better than nothing.

This is the perfect example of how an anachronistic business model is struggling to change with times and will, ultimately, likely be snuffed out.  Building an empire on a foundation of paper just isn’t viable anymore. This is especially true if you have the audacity to charge over $1000 for a yearly subscription.  What do I get with this – the cell phone numbers of the writers, so I can call them up with clarifying questions? Or maybe access to a members-only G&M club with local events?

No, all I get is a big pile of paper (bull).  So sad.