<p>I was lying in bed at 6.40 this morning listening to the radio when the Today programme came on with the news that the paywall for my old paper <i>The Times</i> is finally going love in June. After that it will cost you £1 a day to read any content for the <i>Times</i> and <i>Sunday Times.</i></p>
<p>Are they bloody mad, I thought? Who's going to pay £1 a day? Sure enough the story's everywhere with that headline. I was even rash enough to put out a tweet saying I thought the whole idea was 'as mad as a van-full of badgers'.</p>
<p>Silly me. You need to get your facts right first. And the fact is... yes, it's £1 a day for a casual reader. But for £2 you get a whole week's worth of content from both daily and Sunday newspapers, plus some extras that are <a href="http://www.timesplus.co.uk/welcome/index.htm" target="_blank">talked about a bit here</a> but the public have yet to see.</p>
<p>So it's not £30 a month. It's £8 a month for a newspaper delivered to your PC, phone or -- Lord help us -- iPad. Bit different eh?</p>
<p>If it's good enough that doesn’t sound mad to me at all. I'd pay £8 a month for something that turned up and let me read properly at home, on a train or at the airport. <i>If</i> it was good enough. So I've registered for the trial. We'll see.</p>
<p>Lesson here: rival media are very nervous about Murdoch's attempt to put a paywall in place. If he gets away with this one I suspect the others won't be far behind.</p>