Giving for-profit a try

A trio of heavyweights has formed a company to provide online news sites with an automated system to charge for their content. From the New York Times:

Journalism Online L.L.C., aims to supply publishers with ready-made tools to charge Internet fees, an idea that has gained currency as advertising revenue plummets, but whose prospects of success are doubted by many media analysts. The company, which says it may have a product ready by the fall, says the advantages are that publishers would not have to develop their own systems and readers could use a single system for many different publications.

(NYT via Romenesko)