Cablevision, the parent company of the newspaper/site Newsday, announced Thursday that later this year the site will stop being freely available. In its place will be a locally focused news site attached to its cable service, available to subscribers, presumably for a fee either explicitly or implicitly.
Not surprisingly, the response has been one of horror in the digital sphere.
But it's an interesting model deserving of more scrutiny in the weeks ahead, because it offers access to unique content (Newsday's local coverage) to a subscriber base with a relationship to the cable service --- rather like community television.
It has been tried before, but not as a premium. Still, the details that will emerge in the weeks ahead will be interesting to study.