The New York Observer reports (New York Times Considers Two Plans to Charge for Content on the Web),

By the end of June, The New York Times will come to a decision on how to charge for some of its content on the Web, The Observer has learned.

Executive editor Bill Keller said at a meeting with staff on Wednesday that two proposals are being strongly considered.

One includes a "meter system," in which the reader can roam freely on the Web site until hitting a predetermined limit of word-count or pageviews, after which a meter will start running and the reader is charged for movement on the site thereafter. ...

There goes "the long tail," the odd little stories browsed on a rainy night. Imagine the dilemma while facing the homepage -- "What can I skip so as not to pay?" (The answer is good writing; I can get the gist from rewrites elsewhere.)

Mr. Keller described the second proposal as a "membership" system. In this model, readers pledge money to the site and are invited into a "New York Times community." You write a check, you get a baseball cap or a T-shirt (if it's like Channel Thirteen, a tote bag!), an invite to Times event, or perhaps, like The Economist, access to specialized content on the Web. He said he wouldn't even be opposed to offering a donor access to a Page One editorial meeting as long as it doesn't affect the paper competitively.

I do not want to wear NYT-branded clothing, Times Select already failed, and I live quite far from NYC. I don't want to be in your fan club, I just want to read your often-excellent news stories, few on slow days, more when news events snap, crackle and pop.

There has always been yet another alternative -- revamp outdated advertising systems to permit instant (impulse) purchases of products featured in Web ads, perhaps at a discount. The hosting news org gets a percentage of each sale: Passive revenue, and all the demographic data a site could wish to target, would accrue.

Don't limit the eyeballs -- instead deliver new buyers like me who would otherwise not seek out your advertisers' stores. The more stories I read, the more opportunities to shop.