Woo Hee Chang believes she has the solution to a troubling paradox at the heart of the online news industry. As journalist Tyler Falk discusses in an article (in French) for business and technology website, smartplanet.fr, media businesses want their content to go viral and, of course, they want to monetise it, but more and more have made their content largely inaccessible by putting up paywalls. Some choose to keep a minority of their articles freely accessible, whilst others choose to provide a title and short summary for every article.

But blocking content to non-paying customers, seen now as a financial necessity for many newspapers such as the New York Times, can lead to the "stagnation" of a newspaper's readership. When a paper starts charging for content, many potential new readers steer clear, especially in the case of a brand new publication which has no established reputation or faithful readership willing to pay for continued access to trusted content. This paywall strategy constitutes a "wall" in the very literal sense of the word – it erects a barrier between the newspaper and its potential audience.

Within a few weeks, four papers have announced paid digital content strategies: the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Telegraph and the Sun. With online ad revenue not catching up, it comes as little surprise that the majority of papers in developed markets might well charge online readers in the future.

USA Today remains one of the last major US newspapers without a paywall. During a Business Insider conference in December, Publisher Larry Kramer said the paper is not “unique” enough to start charging for content. "There is so much national news out there,” he said. “I think we would lose more than we would gain.”

Another reason for holding off could be because its parent company, Gannett, gets subscription revenue from its 80 local newspapers. The IB Times also notes that USA Today is distributed in hotels and airports across the country.

The Washington Post is the latest US paper that is reportedly planning an online paywall in the upcoming year. According to The Wall Street Journal, the Washington-based daily will introduce a metered payment model in the summer of 2013 or later. This comes as the paper tackles a steep decline in its core business of print advertising, the Journal notes.

A Washington Post article adds that “Access to the home page and section fronts would not be limited,” and that home subscribers to the print edition would have full access to the paper’s website and other digital products.

For some former supporters, WikiLeaks pinned the scarlet 'H' of hypocrisy to its gown when founder Julian Assange turned to press freedom foe Rafael Correa of Ecuador for political asylum.

This week, WikiLeaks further alienated some of its allies – including underground hacking collective Anonymous – when the freedom-of-information advocate erected a pop-up window, which many news organisations have described as a ‘paywall’ but it prefers to call a 'blockade,' in the path of visitors to its site.

On the same evening that WikiLeaks uploaded its newest trove of leaked ‘Global Intelligence Files’ regarding the U.S. presidential elections, users visiting the site began bumping into a page illustrated with a wallet and credit cards, and bearing the headline, “In this election, vote with your wallet: Vote WikiLeaks.” To get past the pop-up, users were asked to either share the embedded video on Facebook or Twitter, or to make a donation.