Running the numbers on pay-for-content models

More grist for the mill regarding pay-for-content. Martin Langveld at the Nieman lab runs the numbers and determines they don't support just putting up a wall and charging a fee:

A simple tollbooth approach at any price cuts out the vast majority of the audience, and would mean that newspapers were retrenching to print — saying in effect, “If you want our news online, it’s there, just pay the fee, but we’re no longer investing much energy in developing our sites, because there’s no money on that side of the fence.”

A more rigorous look at the potential for pay walls was done by the folks at Media Cafe. They've even got a spreadsheet you can look at. Bottom line: Still doesn't work.