The American Journalism Review, on the gap between newspapers’ bills and income created from online ads:
Charging readers for access won’t really solve this problem, and in some respects it may make matters worse. Pay walls invariably reduce traffic. Whatever revenue a news-paper might gain by charging readers will likely come at the cost of ad revenue […] You think online ad rates are low now? Just wait until advertisers discover that the newspaper is delivering a much smaller audience after it starts charging for access.
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Pay-per-article plans (micropayments) are no more promising. Asking readers to pay a few cents for a story they haven’t read sounds like a massive info-gambling scheme; why would anyone spend even a few cents on something that might turn out to be disappointing, infuriating or just plain unsatisfying? And what nightmares lurk for journalism in any scheme predicated on persuading people to hand over money on the basis of just a headline or story synopsis?