The New York Times announced this week that beginning in 2011, All The News That’s Fit To Print no longer will be free online.

The questions become, “Will South Florida media – the Sun-Sentinel, the Miami Herald, the Palm Beach Post – follow suit?

In what it’s calling a “metered policy,” the Old Gray Lady will allow registered visitors free access to a set number of articles each month. Beyond that, they’ll be charged for content.

Good news? Blasphemy? A peek for the rest of us into what the future of online news media portends? Probably a little of each.

It’s good news because quality journalism is expensive to produce. At a time when ad revenues have been soft, publications like the Times must find ways to bolster coffers to ensure they continue to deliver a good product.

Blasphemy, at least to those who believe anything and everything on the Internet should be free, including the end product of a news organization that spends millions on news gathering each year. These probably are the same people who swipe wifi from their unwitting neighbors.

Whether it will be a peek into tomorrow’s model is yet to be seen. An Associated Press article called the Times’ decision “a risky move aimed at drawing more revenue online without driving away advertisers that want the biggest possible audience…The potential pitfalls have made most other major newspapers hesitant to take a similar step.”

Readers have been getting the Times’ content, and that of most other major news organizations, free online for years. One South Florida paper commented that the New York Times was leading source of news in the region.

So it begs the question: Will local publications follow the Times’ lead. Or will some hold fast to the free model? Free doesn’t drive reader revenues, but it keeps advertisers pleased. Moreover, as publications scramble for reader loyalty, their moves of late to cut payroll as a way to slash newsroom costs has led to a pared-down product that’s equal parts wire service copy and reader derision.

If they charge readers, will the revenues be reinvested into the product, with an emphasis on local columnists / bloggers, expanded online stories and greater use of video, slide shows and other editorial new media – namely, the stuff people in South Florida cannot get from a national daily newspaper?

Another question they must be asking is whether a fee-based model will simply drive readers to local news blogs. Leaner and advertising supported, they’ll certainly pick up traffic as some readers invariably seek out a free alternative.

The question ultimately is: Who will blink first?

Meanwhile, shares of the Times Company fell on the news…