I hope that regional papers follow suit and are able to make enough to survive. Without strong local coverage its hard to mobilize the public to pressure politicians into doing their job. L.A. desperately needs a quality newspaper to keep people up to speed with what's going on in City Hall. Right now, the city is undergoing the worst budget crisis in its history and no one is reporting it aside from the occasional Daily News article from the marvelous Rick Orlov. It worries me that there is some seriously shady business going on in City Hall between the Mayor, the City Council and the Coalition of L.A. City Unions and no one outside of government knows. Maybe if this city had better coverage, not only would things like this not happen, but we wouldn't have a mayor that was elected by only 150,000 people. People have to be more involved in local politics and can only do so if they have reliable information outlets. Of course the problem in L.A. is that the L.A. Times is a terrible newspaper and I fear that there is no guarantee that an increased budget will improve local coverage in any significant way.

@ambitious: At least my name makes sense. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but it's been three episodes now and I refuse to move past the whole Jonna = Jonnay issue.

@contains_hot_liquid: Denton still has himself on the page-view payscale.

@ibobunot: If anything, this has the potential to spark glib, bitchy, and vindictive class warfare amongst the peanut gallery.

This new comment thingy will haunt my dreams.

@jonessodaholic: Tami had the abortion on the show if I remember correctly. Looking back that was a pretty bold move. The 90's were wild!

So if I click anywhere besides the comment box while commenting, anything I've written—no matter how brilliant—disappears into the ether?

@depardoo: I disagree. This new comment system roll-out—like the death of Michael Jackson—was perpetrated by the Iranian government to get their country off of the front page. CNN's homepage is now just a bunch of stories about how "MJ took pills meant for astronauts" and "Nick Denton creates Basij class among Gawker commenters."

Yep. You get ass raped if you download illegally.

I don't think I'd pay at this point given that I get most of my news from blogs and other online sources. I read the NYT for style and other such entertainments, but their journalism hasn't been at the front for some time.

I was waiting for the rapper to be Tom Cruise. It wasn't and so there is the possibility that this was supposed to be serious.

Not sure why this is couched in terms of subscribers paying extra for access - aren't the print subscribers already paying their fair share? The goal should be to recover something from people who aren't already print subscribers - let print subscribers in for free...

@probablynotcontagious: By reading Gawker. The biggest problem with the subscription model is that sites like this would always be able to summarize what's behind the pay wall for the people who aren't quite interested enough to hand over their credit card number.

@Aaron Altman: If there was ever a channel that could be improved by having an impossibly tanned man drone on about how nice San Diego is, it's Fox News.

But prison rape jokes are the "Who's On First?" of our age!

@Gabriel Snyder: So much for that 15-minute grace period!

@Pope John Peeps II: More likely he would replace my mouth with a closed zipper and a Dangerous Curves sign on my ass.

And I would have gotten away with it, too, if it wasn't for that precocious rapper!

@Peter Feld: agreed re charging consumers directly not being a real option - for the sites it would work for, it's already happening - WSJ, Consumer Reports, etc. NYT content is not so unique that enough people are willing to pay - or they'd already be charging. In my opinion of course. They have good data from TimesSelect experiment. Re cable model, theoretically yes - ISPs are getting the cash today, and if content providers want cash, why not go to the people that have it. But as a practical matter it seems entirely unworkable. I don't believe consumers will accept a tiered pricing model the way they do for cable TV - and even if they did, what's in those tiers? It would be interesting to see the NYT or another media provider company withhold their content from an ISP and demand payment - but mostly interesting as a PR nightmare for the provider. A portion of the consumer payment distributed to content providers based on specific consumer usage that month would be interesting too - but the mechanics and possibility of gaming the system seem unwieldy. I'm a past NYT print subscriber, had the Sunday edition for a couple of years. Still read the NYT online. But I spend more time with and find more value in many highly specific content sources that speak to my unique interests than I do in the NY Times. It has some value for me as the "paper of record," but not in terms of regular usage.

Okay, since I seem to be the only Hindu in these here parts, I am forced to break my vow of silence and post this comment through the use of the sacred ancient art of telepathy while simultaneously meditating in my remote mountain crib in the himalayas. Firstly, not all Hindu's are vegetarians. Jesus! Though some of us are vegetarian, the rest of us eat chicken, meat, peperoni, ham, etc. Basically, everything except British food. Secondly, I never knew Lakshmi had a sister. Go figure. Thirdly, does that make me a non-practicing hindu?

@Spirit Fingers: Don't worry; naps are good, and they work!

@Seeräuber Jenny: Star of my favorite children's show, Discovering Psychology? That show was what I transitioned into after I was too old for Reading Rainbow. Is it possible to be too old for Reading Rainbow? I don't think so, but you don't have to take my word for it.

Maybe it's just that / people are really tired of / their jejune satire

@bjonston: Me too. The stars (I see we both keep ours), seem to mean extra responsibility and I'm not sure I currently have the brain chemistry to live up to that.

@kimsama: Annalee on i09 told me that stars will not transfer to each site anymore.

@bjonston: You just keep being you, sweetie.

@FrozenHaddock: Today's was one of the easier Thursday puzzles.

@Foster Kamer: God, marry me.

@bjonston: I'm not sure, but I'm having fun figuring it out! I'm just scared about what's going to happen to liveblogs.