Propping up print with a partial paywall, eh, NYT?

I haven’t said much about the New York Times payment structure (it’s not a paywall), because, well, it looks OK. Not a bad way to address the issues of monetising the commodity we call general news. But one thing has been bugging me about it, and it was neatly summed up by John Gruber of Daring Fireball:

If you want to pay the New York Times to read the news using both their iPhone and iPad apps, in theory, you should be their ideal customer — you’re willing to pay, and you’re looking forward, technology-wise. But you’ll save money by getting several pounds of paper that you don’t want delivered to your doorstep every week.

Using online access to prop up paper subscriptions does not suggest a huge amount of confidence in the online revenue model being viable in its own right.