Scotsman to charge for content

The Scotsman has announced that it is to start charging for some of the content on its website.

The way people use and consume news media is changing and we have developed these services in order to meet this changing demand and to help ensure that we continue to thrive as a publishing organisation.

It's hard to argue that consumption of news is in flux - blogs have thrown up a plethora of free opinion columns on every possible subject and from every point of view. The Scotsman has thought long and hard about this challenge and has decided that the correct way to deal with a barrage of free competition in the opinion market is to charge for their own opinion pieces.

It's an interesting strategy, but I can't see it catching on.