Um, sir, you’ll have to pay for that.

Last week brought the “announcements” that the Providence Journal thinking about possibly monetizing it’s content and that Twitter is probably going to offer a paid business account soonish that would offer analytics. A sign of the economic times or a factor of inevitability…

In an interview Jonathan Fildes for BBC News, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone announces that we may see commercial accounts this year. Stone reiterates that Twitter will “always be free to everyone whether it’s commercial or personal,” but the paid features will be an “additional layer of access to learn more about your twitter account; get some feedback, get some analytics so you can become a better Twitterer.” This is a paid service I’m excited to hear more about. Monetizing Twitter is something we’ve been waiting for, and I appreciate that the founders understand that the everyday Twitterer would never cough up a dime for the service.

Paying for the Projo on the otherhand… First off, the wishy-washy statementI read in the PBN was that Providence Journal parent company A.H. Belo Corp. is considering charging for online content for one of its three papers (The Journal, The Dallas Morning News or The Press-Enterprise of Riverside, California). The move would also remove the publication’s content from popular news site Google News. I wonder what you all think about the Projo possibly charging for online content (as if the 8 million requests for you to sign up as a registered user aren’t annoying enough).

This makes me think back to another moment in the Biz Stone interview. Stone recalls co-founder Evan Williams‘ response to the statement “Twitter is fun but is not useful.” “Neither is ice cream,” he retorted. In the same respect, how could we compare something that is neither fun nor useful…