Speaking at the Sixth Conference on Innovation in Journalism at Stanford, Vin Cerf suggested that newspapers should figure out a way to charge for online content.  Coming from the acknowledged “Father of the Internet,” this no doubt upset some “netopians” (my own term for “netizen” utopians who think everything should be free online, that anyone who believes otherwise is a Luddite and fool, and that - newspapers be damned - it will all work out in the end).

Cerf noted, “If there’s no way to reward intellectual property, it will be difficult to come by,”  and, touting the iTunes model, he suggested that micro-payments for content might be one solution.  Putting aside the main flaw in the analogy, which, as pointed out by David Kaplan of PaidContent, is that selling music helps Apple sells iPods, Cerf is rejecting a key premise of the netopians: the notion that because so much news content is free inevitably all of it must be free.

Cerf also noted, “The Internet enhances the value of critical thinking, otherwise we’re just awash in information… People’s trust in journalism has always been about branding, it’s still fundamental to compete.”  The New York Times, the Washington Post, and many local newspapers still have the branding.  That’s one reason why eventually they’ll figure out a way to make loyal readers pay for at least some of their online content.