SCMP remains firmly behind a firewall

Chris Axberg, the editor in charge of the website of the South China Morning Post has left his job after a disagreement between management on the financial firewall the leading daily is maintaining, reports Shanghaiist.
Today the New York Times will remove the financial barriers (called TimesSelect) to read parts of its paper and - with the notable exception of the Wall Street Journal and parts of the Financial Times - financial firewalls are considered to be a nono for online publishing.

Axberg, who recently spearheaded SCMP’s relaunch of its online platform, confirmed his departure was effective from 28 September, bringing an end to an eight-year tenure with the company.
Sources indicated executive director, SCMP Group, Kuok Hui Kong was the front-runner to take the reins. Axberg said although he had advocated the SCMP’s online site becoming free for users with advertisers driving revenue, management had opted to retain a subscription-based model.

This is the verdict of online guru Jeff Jarvis on the move of the New York Times, but the same goes of course for the SCMP:

Bull. TimesSelect represented the last gasp of the circulation mentality of news media, the belief that surely consumers would continue to pay for content even as the internet commodified news and — more important — even as the internet revealed that the real value in media is not owning and controlling content or distribution but enabling conversation.