Chronicle begins pay system with top providers

The Chronicle has begun, in earnest, its form of pay walls, charging readers for the right to read the papers' more popular content providers like Matier and Ross, Scott Ostler, Willie Brown, and the like.

The Bay Area's biggest daily has been withholding certain content in its Sunday edition, requiring readers to buy the newspaper, and publishing the paid content free of charge on its SFGate website, two days later.

The actual breakdown.

The NY Times and several other papers soon plan to charge customers with various forms of pay walls.

Most media analysts have predicted for some time that newspapers would have to charge for its content to add revenue to an industry that has seen its core customer move to the internet. Whether or not this form of revenue is sustainable remains to be seen.

The Wall St. Journal has been successful and is the nation's largest newspaper. The Times, (NY) tried it early last year before axing it, but will begin a pay system in 2011.

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