I don't pay for my news, online or print, because I have zero confidence that paid news sources offer better quality. Take the print papers in my city: the free dailies offer most of the stories of the paid dailies. The big difference is that the paid papers are fatter: advertiser driven supplements, single-sided editorials, and minor updates to the prior days' news. Why would I pay to be subject to more advertising, to have someone tell me what my opinion is, or waste my time sifting through recaps of stories I read a day or two earlier?

That being said, I'll take free print over free online news any day.