Should archives by behind a paywall?

This.

 

Not every paper does, and some do not include the entire archive, particularly pre mid-1980s, and unless you job it out, if you do you still have to create and manage whatever pay system you decide to use, and that takes someone's time and energy. In a not completely disimilar situation, some libraries and archives have recently made some significant holdings available online for free that they used to charge for simply because the cost/benefit isn't there - it's more costly for them to charge for reproduction and research than just give it away.

 

Well, we charge for ours.

 

A thought that just hit me as I was skimming the thread: What happens if you're freelancing a story for an out of town paper that has runs a paywall, and you want a copy to put in your clip file? Do you get them to mail you a copy? E-mail a copy if, like me, your clips are in a Word doc? Pay for a day of access (if that's possible) in order to get a copy?

 

We don't charge until the story is two weeks old. Then you can pay for stuff at a variety of levels, ranging from $3 for one story up to a year's access to up to 1,000 files for about two grand.