Photo by Chris Rief

The Washington Post is finally getting with the program that subscription-based newspapers shouldn’t be giving themselves away for free on the Internet and is reportedly considering the addition of a paywall next year.

News that The Washington Post Company was ready to start charging for online access was first reported yesterday by The Wall Street Journal, which has long featured a paywall on its website (though this story was free). The Post follows up with its own story today, and even for the often meta nature of publications reporting on themselves, it’s a little weird.

Although Post Company boss Don Graham has long resisted the metered paywall model implemented last year by The New York Times—each reader can read a set number of articles per month before the charges begin—that’s exactly the kind of system the Post reports it is going to use. The Times cuts off free access at 20 articles.

The Post also reports that print subscribers would receive full online access.

Making people pay for journalism has been something of a head-scratcher for the Post Company, though. Graham recently said that he feared alienating the 90 percent of the Post’s online audience who visit the paper’s website from beyond the D.C. area. But the metered paywall model has a good track record. Since putting up its barriers, The Times has built an online subscription base of 600,000.

Graham still has those qualms, the Post reports:

When asked Monday at the conference about the possibility of introducing a paywall, Graham said: “We’re going to continue to study every aspect” of such a move. He praised the New York Times for “what seems to be a very intelligent paywall.” But he added that The Post’s strength was its local audience and ads, and said he was concerned about losing national audience and advertising by charging online readers.

But what finally convinced Graham that giving the news away for free is a bad idea when there’s a paper to be printed, property to be maintained and a slide in digital advertising revenue?

Another rich guy, basically.

Warren Buffett, who bought 63 small- and mid-market papers this year from Media General, is implementing paywalls on his properties. Buffett is also a former member of the Post Company’s board of directors and a pal of Graham’s.

Anyway, good on Graham for finally getting it that big metropolitan broadsheets shouldn’t be giving their product away for free.