I was faintly amused by the headline on the Guardian website – ‘The Times they are a charging’, of course in reference to Mr Murdoch’s plan to charge for content on NI’s websites.

I have always firmly held the belief that if you restrict access to content on websites, either by unpaid subscription or worst still paid subscription, it is a sure fire way to drive visitors to a) your competitors sites b) to bootleg the information or c) away.

When the afore mentioned Guardian site tried enforced registration for their site, a black market sprung up with pre-registered user accounts to log-in with so the visitor didn’t have to leave their personal info to be spammed at a later date. They have always been a little ahead of the NI sites in regard to their use of new technology and techniques.

It didn’t work for them and it will (in my humble opinion anyway) will fail for NI. I occationally visit the Times site. It is looking a bit old nowadays and the BBC have better content, however due to some small amount of loyalty to the company, I go on the site to look at content that we produce in the studio and to look at the normally good web/tech section.

I wouldn’t however pay for the privilege, or at least the content on the site would have to be a whole lot more compelling to make me put my hand in my pocket.

I wish them luck, I think they are going to need it.