As far as he's concerned, we've spent enough time discussing the challenges of paid content online. It's time to make free content models work, says Yahoo! vice president James Pitaro in PaidContent.

He argues that professional and semi-professional content will hold value., that partnerships will make for economically efficient sites, that advertisers will be lured through early-stage discussions on content, and that premium models will be an opportunity.

"As an industry, let’s stop demonizing the free model. Free is not a panacea, but it is a serious alternative and one that cannot be discounted. It is easy to throw in the towel and put up a pay wall and hard to withstand industry pressure and remain free. But in the long run, an investment in free may pay dividends," he writes.