Alan Mutter is clear about this: "If we are going to save the tradition of professional journalism, it is vital for publishers to begin producing content that is sufficiently unique, authoritative and valuable to motivate consumers to pay for it."
His latest post in Reflections of a Newsosaur decries the diminution of newsrooms ("this is not merely a step in the wrong direction. It is a leap into the abyss"), the failure to invest in new forms of content, and the many missed opportunities to create a firewall such that only subscribers could receive select, elite work.
He notes many get it wrong in their firewalls, but he thinks it's time to get on with the process of building a new dividing line between free and not-free. It need not be a Watergate investigation --- rather, it needs to be elegantly organized and curated so it can then be targeted intelligently to an interested audience.
