I totally agree that "move the ball forward" reporting, not breaking news, on coronavirus stuff, should remain paywalled. I've already said so on Twitter, using 9/11 as an analogy.
Per Stewart Brand's "Information wants to be free," which he was apparently using in the "gratis" sense, not "libre," newspapers who put too much out there for free aren't recruiting new subscribers at all; they're just increasing the number of drive-by readers and the likelihood they remain drive-by.
Other papers will have to make similar choices; some already are.
That said, material about halfway through this Nieman Lab piece reflects what I've said for years. Per the mindset behind Brand, and how long it's been out there, many people today simply aren't going to pay.
A former Denver Post and Media Snooze honcho agrees with me, in a Poynter piece. And, his reasoning is the same.
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