I think a successful pay wall model is evolving for a few daily publishers. While local papers are dying, and most of their online efforts have filed to revive business, and few more specialized publications are thriving.  One example is the Wall Street Journal. It’s arguably the best single source of business news. It’s online / print hybrid subscription model has maintained a solid subscriber base.

Another success story is the Cristian Science Monitor. The publications subscriber base has always been small, but with the implementation of a weekly print digest alone with daily online updates at a fair price ($5.75/month)  it’s readership is growing.

Reader cram points us to a paidContent post by John Yemma, the editor of The Christian Science Monitor, in which he makes a lot of great points about digital strategies for news publishing.

A year ago, we ceased publishing the daily, 100-year-old Christian Science Monitor newspaper and launched a weekly magazine to complement our website, on which we doubled down by reorienting our newsroom to be web-first. Our web traffic climbed from 6 million page views last April to 13 million in February. Our print circulation rose from 43,000 to 77,000 in the same period. This is the sort of bold move that might be the last hope for some struggling publications, and it’s also an example of CwF+RtB. Magazines still hold value to readers as an attractive physical item in a way that newspapers don’t—by connecting with fans online and then giving them a better reason to buy the print product, CSM increased the readership of both. (Techdirt)

While you can argue that the Cristian Science Monitor is a boutique periodical with a captive audience of church members, it’s also worth noting that none of that membership is compelled to subscribe by church rules.  Rather, they are compelled to subscribe by the value of what the publication offers in content that is relevant to them.

Local dailies and news mags have tended to be aggregators of content from outside sources, making them more of a distribution channel. When the Internet provided a more efficient distribution channel, the time came for them to evolve into something different. In order to find relevance, not only do they need to move online with a real time publication model. They also need to offer something compelling at a fair price.

Our constitutional mentor, President Thomas Jefferson spent part of his life in France.  At the time, France was hardly a libertarian hotbed, but occasionally very enlightened ideas are put into practice there, and certainly Mr Jefferson learned as much as he taught there. In some ways France enjoys greater liberties than Americans, beyond what most may be thinking as they read this. For example, strict enforcement of local loop unbundling has brought France’s urban dwellers some of the fastest, cheapest and feature rich broadband in the world. Now the French government is required to publish a new law in its entirety online, or the law will be rescinded. Unfortunately, this does not apply to all laws, but it’s a step in the right direction.

Laurent GUERBY writes in to point us to some news of a new decree from the French government, supposedly saying that all laws must be published on the prime minister’s website to be valid (link in French, Google translation to English). Guerby’s reading is that this means if the government does not publish all laws on the prime minister’s website by May of next year, any unpublished law is no longer valid. (Techdirt)

Now, for all of the newly elected Congress Critters and the President: How about going one better on  the French? The internet was founded to FREE ALL INFORMATION, including laws. Why not require ALL new federal laws and regs be easily accessible? All new laws should be published online for public review BEFORE they will be valid. You’ll discourage the less necessary while making our government every bit as transparent as you promised.  That is of course if your are really for change that extends beyond whose name is on the door of those coveted offices you now hold the keys to.