Deadline Hollywood Daily's Nikki Finke reports that both Variety and The Hollywood Reporter are planning to begin charging readers for accessing their web sites. In essence, the content will be available only to subscribers. Variety tried this tactic once before and abandoned it, but the trade publication is fighting for its life in a climate in which advertising revenue has dropped dramatically. The anemic sales of its print edition cannot support the company and web-based revenues are essential to its future. Variety's arch-rival The Hollywood Reporter is said to be considering a similar tactic, including scrapping its daily print edition. As we've reported previously, the era of completely free web content may be coming to an end. Newspapers and magazines cannot long sustain putting their articles on the web gratis when they still have to pay staffers to produce the work. For more click here