News Groups Wrestle With Online Fees

"We have to make a business out of the combination of printed newspaper and the Web site," Graham said. That's a harder task than when he started in newspapers, Graham conceded, but "far from impossible."

Graham didn't address whether The Post would consider charging for access to online content, but Caroline H. Little, publisher of Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, said in an interview that washingtonpost.com has no subscription plans.

Peter R. Kann, chairman and chief executive of Dow Jones, publisher of the Wall Street Journal, said publishers must figure out how to recapture readers fleeing print editions with new electronic products. He said papers could do a better job of indexing their content online to make it easier for readers to find stories that interest them.

The Wall Street Journal Interactive has charged for access for years and currently has 730,000 paying subscribers. Kann said he never thought it made sense to give away content: "I don't see why we should give all this content . . . away for free in one medium and charge in another medium."

He also said publishers are underpricing their print newspapers and should consider raising print prices. "No one in this room thinks twice about spending $2 to buy a bad cup of coffee walking through an airport," Kann declared, "yet most newspaper publishers are wary over even getting their single-copy price up to a dollar."

While dozens of smaller papers have started charging for all or part of their Web sites in recent years, the Journal is still the only large American paper charging for almost all its online content.

It's worth noting that Los Angeles Times Interactive is not giving up on subscriptions and is planning to roll out new fee-based, online-only features within a year. In addition, the site is planning an archive offering not unlike what the New York Times announced, Barrett said. He said he believes there is untapped subscription potential from new features that will be developed to take advantage of the Internet's unique qualities.

Interviews with attendees here suggested that for now, the New York Times' archive offering likely will draw more subscribers than its op-ed writers. Some even speculated on just how long it would take the Times to lift the fee for reading its columnists.

Typical was the reaction of Michael Markman, a marketing executive with Digeo Inc., who said he buys the printed New York Times on many Sundays but reads most of his news for free online. Why doesn't he take the paper at home?

"I don't want to bother throwing it away," he said. "The Internet throws itself away."

Leslie Walker's e-mail address iswalkerl@washpost.com.