I'm known as an 'information yearns to be free' guy across the net, but as I talk to more people who have had success selling access to content, I'm becoming more open to the idea. Especially when I visit with guys like Broc Romanek, a lawyer, who's one of editors at TheCorporateCounsel.net. Understand Broc's working with a company, with multiple people, and in a full time gig.

In the case of some of the lawyers, there's some meat on the bone. They've been practicing law for years. They're widely respected in their state or nationally in niche areas of the law. They have an appreciation of the type of content that should be freely available on a blog and that for which the premium value may warrant charging for. They have a broad following. And they've thought through the delivery mechanism for the premium content.

Other lawyers haven't got to the second minute thinking through the idea. They have not a clue about web content, or for that matter how the Internet and blogs even work. They're looking for a quick way to make money because they saw someone else do it. Lot's of luck to you guys.

Pat Thornton, a new media journalist, Web developer, and publisher of The Journalism Iconoclast, sheds some light on the issue in his post 'News organizations need to upsell users.'

The idea that news organizations should charge for basic content on the Web is repugnant.

It’s a losing proposition. It’s a terrible, terrible idea. And journalism is filled with terrible ideas right now.

But that doesn’t mean news organizations can’t charge for content. Far from it. Rather, news organizations need to create upsell features.

Pat shares a number of ideas, that though not directly applicable to lawyers, provide excellent food for thought as to what you need to be thinking of if you're going to start charging.

• Content is one upsell area. ESPN Insider, for a paid subscription, offers scouting reports on every player, in-depth trend data for games, and AccuScore predictions on various aspects of upcoming games.
• Another could be business listings. For instance, a local site should offer every business and restaurant a free listing but also offer premium features for a price.
• Want to be able to upload coupons each week to our Web site? Premium feature. Want an in-depth, easily changeable menu for your restaurant? Premium feature. Want a blog to interact with your customers? Premium feature.
• Basic classifieds for individuals should be free, but we can still sell people on premium features. Want your listing to stand out with custom features, we’ll sell them to you.

I agree wholeheartedly with Pat, 'If we’re going to ask people for money, we have to create value. Basic content isn’t that.'

And I've got some skin in this game. Not only is my son, Colin, a junior in the Journalism School at the University of Montana, but LexBlog is going to be employing a fair amount of journalism grads and interns in the years ahead.

Rob LaGatta, a senior journalism student Seattle University has been interning with us for the last year. He may have earned himself a position on graduation by his desire to learn business.

Problem for Seattle U is that he didn't learn the first thing about business or entrepreneurialism while he in school. Rob and his fellow grads may have learned journalism skills but that ain't going to pay the rent as he tells me he isn't sure if anyone in his class has a journalism job upon graduation.

Pat makes some excellent points.

Journalism needs enterprising journalists to think of new ventures to modernize journalism. Opportunities in journalism will increasingly be from entrepreneurial routes as the mainstream media continues to wither away from obsolescence.......Traditional media companies are failing, journalists don't understand how to make compelling products and new media ventures are beginning to take over. That's where solid entrepreneurial skills come in.

The opportunities are out there, they're just different.

The opportunities for journalists are growing, not shrinking. The traditional, MSM routes are rapidly shrinking, but the avenues for business savvy, enterprising young journalists are ever expanding.

Journalism schools need to give students the skills needed to succeeded in modern journalism. That means a little business sense is now needed.

We've got another Seattle U j-school student joining LexBlog as an intern this week. I feel good not only about the contributions she'll make to our mission of empowering lawyers through publishing, but also about what she'll learn about the business of journalism today.

That ought to send shock waves through large law firms with expensive PR and communication programs designed to get their lawyers quoted in print. Unfortunately it's not.

I continue to run across law firm heads who know little about online publishing - unless you count archiving old articles and newsletters on websites. Chief Marketing Officers and PR heads in large law act like blogs, by far and away the largest producer of online niche news & information, are for kids. Mention RSS and newsreaders, the way innovative business people and reporters syndicate and receive news, and I'm told that's too techie, we're not into that stuff around here.

Even worse is that there's little being done in large law to adapt. Marketing and communication heads hire outside agencies they're comfortable with, often whom have no experience or taste for online publishing through blogs and RSS. Heck, some PR agencies representing law firms have a conflict of interest in seeing such new ways of PR work, they'd be out of a job.

Although there's some education in the legal marketing profession on new methods of PR, there's not enough. I'm amazed when I get out and speak that legal marketing professionals know little about the subject and ask me why thete's not more people presenting on the topic.

As The New Yorker's Eric Alterman wrote about the web, '[Content] distribution is frictionless, swift, and cheap.' That's why individual lawyers in large law firms who are publishing blogs are garnering significant press. Being quoted in two to three stories a month is not unusual.

Law firms need to wake up. Those who do will hold a significant competitive edge.