In really interesting move the Canadian news site Globe and Mail have just opened up their site for free. No more walled garden!

As they put it “the locks are off” and “every Globe columnist, daily horoscopes, crosswords, Sudoku puzzles and a suite of news-tracking tools are now free. Margaret Wente, Christie Blatchford, Jeffrey Simpson and the rest of The Globe’s best-known columnists can join the fray and add their talented voices to the freewheeling conversations of the Internet era.” (my italics)

Simultaneously they appear to have launched a new premium paid service called Globe Plus that gives access to more detailed information.

I suspect that this is a beginning of a trend towards opening up of basic services for free and paid premium services. After all, it seemed to work for Flickr.

[Hat tip: Matthew Ingram]

By Carruthers via Aide-mémoire
http://w.sharethis.com/widget/?tabs=web%2Cemail&charset=utf-8&services=facebook%2Cdigg%2Cstumbleupon%2Cdelicious%2Creddit%2Cblinklist%2Cnewsvine%2Cfurl%2Ctailrank%2Cmagnolia&style=rotate&publisher=91b467b0-fcb3-4e42-95e0-1f04ad0c9be9