globeandmail.com, a one-time employer, has decided to move towards a business model that combines free and paid content online.

They introduced registration some time ago.

This weekend, they upped the ante. If you want to read their columnists or editorials, you'll have to subscribe to their premium service known as the insider edition.

Along with that, you'll get access to access to GlobeWatch (which I think is a pop-up that displays news strictly by time and not by editorial judgment), GlobeEdge (an e-mail alert system), some Wall Street Journal copy online, premium features like horoscopes and crossword puzzles, and Insider Exclusives, which will include advance notice of breaking stories, bundles of content on issues of the day, newsletters and expanded archive access.

I'm limited in what I can say, because I'm an employee of Bell Globemedia, which means the Globe and Mail is a corporate cousin.

Here is an earlier blog post I wrote on shallow reporting about online news.

In other writings, I've said (in general) that trying to get people to pay for general online news is foolish, and that if you want to charge for access to your website, you better offer some value.

It seems to me that globeandmail.com is attempting to do just that -- albiet in part by walling of some of its higher-value, unique content (i.e. big-name columnists). Now I'll have to try it out and see.