Barbarians at the Gate, Publishers Seek Help

When the reeling newspaper industry sent its honchos to the Chicago O'Hare Hilton last week to discuss the future viability of the business, it sounded dramatic, desperate, perhaps even tragicomic.

(The writer who broke the news, former Chicago Tribune managing editor James Warren, likened the meeting -- sardonically -- to the infamous mafia conclave in Apalachin, New York, in 1957.)

Not surprisingly, speculation was rife among media watchers (and investors) about the details of the meeting's conversation. There seemed to be only one item on the agenda: how and when publishers might begin charging readers for online news -- and, indeed, how to sell audiences accustomed to free Internet content on the very idea of paywalls. ...