Conventional online advertising has far less impact and pays far less than print ads, no point debating whose 'fault' that is (
) - it's a function of the medium. Newspapers obviously have to work out a method of surviving in this environment, but I doubt that simply adding a paywall to a website is the way to go. As can be seen from some of the comments here, the flawed notion that online resources magically appear from thin air and should therefore be free is widely entrenched.
They really need to move to a substantially different model to alter both the experience and the expectations. The iPad is certainly a better choice of platform for providing rich media delivery with the sort of focussed, high impact that advertisers will pay for. And as I reported earlier, the ad-sales prior to launch are looking hopeful. But publishers really need to have a strategy like that in-place and get readers to move to an alternative platform before clamping the online version to protect sales. I suspect that is what we'll see with the NYT - the paywall will go up once the iPad version is doing well.