Sign of the Times: For Newspapers to Survive, They Must Put Users First

Recently, in an attempt to recoup the damage the Internet has wreaked on the publishing industry, The New York Times announced that it will move to a subscription model on its Web site. Whether this gambit will work any better than the last time they tried it is anybody's guess. But nobody's arguing that we're at a make-or-break moment in publishing.

If publications continue to rely on selling advertising to support their costs, then I have one question for them: How does that serve the...