Atlantic's paywall struggles underscore dilemma facing midsize publishers: Opinion

It wasn't that long ago that everyone thought you could save media by bringing down paywalls at publications. Content wanted to be free, or so went the thinking, and digital advertising wanted to be expensive. In 2008, The Atlantic, a legacy publication with a reputation for digital innovation, embraced the wisdom of crowds and took its wall down. But then digital ads got cheap, and publishers started to build new walls. So in December 2017, Bob Cohn, The Atlantic president, announced that star