“The other thing I like about the FT‘s model is that it’s an elegant implementation of ‘freemium.’ The best freemium models allow anyone to use the service for free and then convert the most serious/frequent/power users to paying customers.” The blog post sparked a lively conversation, even by A VC‘s standards, with more than 250 comments.

Post-script: We asked Wilson about the WSJ model, which offers a good chunk of the content for free but charges a subscription for access to the full package, including the WSJ’s prized economics and markets coverage. He said it wasn’t ideal because it isn’t “simple and elegant’ like the FT‘s setup. As for the NYT, which is considering some sort of subscription model, Wilson writes in the comments to his post that he was not a fan of the paper’s previous Times Select option, because like WSJ, it charged for some content and offered other slices for free. “I believe they have a brand and an audience that values their content enough that a good percentage will pay,” he writes. “The trick is how to implement it. I never paid for Times Select because I was insulted by the idea that you had to pay for opinion but not news.”

Please e-mail suggestions for future editions of the Inside Word to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).