NewMedia: Fee vs. Free: No Longer an Easy Decision: "So before you go and select a service provider for your Web site, you should consider looking at the fee-based services over simply selecting one that's free. There is something about a company that from day one has the confidence to charge a fee for its service in a brutal market of competitors offering a similar service for free. I believe that confidence is often because they focus on the quality rather than cost."

I have argued already that a mix of fee and free might work, but most people seem to think it has to be a radical either-or decision. Update: Ziff-Davis Media's Aaron Goldberg thinks ISPs could be these aggregators.

07/23/01 update: Content Exchange: Make Them Pay! (ISPs, Not Internet Users)

08/16/01 update: John Robb has a related line of thought about RBOCs.