What do we know about newspapers and the internets? We know that print newspapers are dying. We know that subscription models don't work online. They never have, other than with, you know, porn. There are numerous things the print people are doing wrong, and shutting out internet readers with a subscription service is like sticking with VHS in a DVD world.
I have a long, long motivational-speaker-like speech about this topic and how establishment media (including papers, TV, music, etc) is treating the internet like a bastard stepchild of instead of the core of their business models. But this is the broadstroke reason why establishment media is struggling with the internet. They need to turn their models inside-out. In the newspaper world, print is still wagging the dog and this means epic fail.