Millions of people go into work everyday and log onto the online version of their preferred newspaper. They do this because it’s free!

Financial Times editor Lionel Barber has recently said in a Channel 4 news interview that the newspaper industry must charge people for reading newspapers online, and that free content on the web was the biggest mistake the industry has made in the past ten years. Is this the beginning of the fall for the online newspaper?

The FT currently has 117,000 paying web subscribers, which represents 10% of those registered on FT.com. Surely this new approach to online news would result in a huge decline in the online readership.

Lionel wants this future business model to create revenue lost from lack of online advertising which supports the free online content. He also wants other newspapers to do the same. Perhaps this is too little too late?

Many newspapers such as the Guardian, Times Online and many regional newspapers have put time and effort into pushing there online capabilities: creating communities around there newspaper, with thousands of people following them on twitter and interacting with them via blogs and commenting. Will they follow in the footsteps of the FT? Would you pay to read an online newspaper?