The hardworking staff just received this email from the LA Times:

Dear Readers,
	We are making an exciting change to latimes.com, and we want you to be the first to know how we’re evolving.
	NEW LOS ANGELES TIMES MEMBERSHIP PROGRAM
	On March 5, we’re launching a membership program. If you’re an avid latimes.com reader, but not currently a home delivery customer, we hope you’ll consider joining for a nominal fee to get:
	• Unlimited digital access to all of The Times’ award-winning news and information • Unique storytelling • Investigative reports • In-depth local news • Signature blogs • Compelling photo galleries • Original video content • Revealing data projects and analysis
	Membership privileges also include:
	• Special opportunities at select Times events • Exclusive discounts and deals • Giveaways and contests
	If you are already a subscriber, you simply need to follow a few registration steps to activate your membership at no additional cost. Non-members can continue to browse The Times online for limited reading and breaking news.
	To activate or join on March 5, please visit latimes.com/membership.
	As always, the Los Angeles Times is your all-access pass to the news, culture and happenings that matter. Our high-quality journalism consistently wins the country’s most prestigious accolades and provides you with the trusted news and information crucial to navigating and enjoying Southern California. We believe our coverage — from around the world and right down to your neighborhood — provides perspective and incomparable value and we appreciate that you do too.

(Yeah, yeah – we know it’s a visual mess. But that’s not our fault. We’re just the messenger.)

More important, check out the language the LAT employs: exciting, evolving, nominal, unique, original and etc.

Reality check via TechCrunch:

The Los Angeles Times reports that The Los Angeles Times will be adopting a paywall (they prefer the term “membership program”) starting March 5th, joining the ranks of other large newspapers hoping to replace plummeting subscription revenues. Readers, naturally, are incensed, though the change was inevitable for such a large newspaper.

Although the move to a paid or at least somehow powerfully monetized online model is going to be critical for the L.A. Times and other major print establishments, it appears that everyone in the industry is still in the “flailing” stage, and hoping that a model rejected and circumvented by readers will somehow work for them as it has (in a way) worked for others.

Accent on in a way. Which is no way out of the newspaper industry’s current dilemma.