An intriguing proposal

Way back when putting newspaper content on the Internet was a new idea, visionaries decided that they could establish their publications as the go-to sources for all information in their communities by making it available for free.

I wonder if General Motors ever considered giving away the cars it builds -- and how much longer the company could have staved off bankruptcy by following the same shrewd strategy.

Now, with newsrooms across America continuing to shove free news onto a medium they haven't figured out how to make pay, David Simon has an intriguing, albeit risky, proposal in the current Columbia Journalism Review. He calls upon the publishers of The New York Times and The Washington Post to start charging everyone who doesn't subscribe to the print papers to read them online.

There's something about this that feels like the periodic efforts to end the reliance on anonymous sources in the nation's capital. It could work only if everyone involved agrees to do it -- which never happens.

The same is true here. If either paper balks, the other would suffer greatly. On the other hand, if both go along -- and, perhaps, are joined by other large news organizations -- they just might be able to breathe some life back into America's newsrooms.