In Part One of Mediashift’s Great Debate on Micropayments and Paid Content, David Carr of the New York Times goes up against Techdirt‘s Mike Masnick. And from my vantage point, Masnick wins the matchup with room to spare.

Carr’s points – in favor of putting up pay walls for content – are fairly representative of what we hear from newspaper folks nearly every day now. While pointing to iTunes and the Wall Street Journal as examples of how pay schemes will work, he also hints that the only alternative, advertising, won’t sustain the news operation. And on this, Masnick doesn’t miss the opening:

Your argument that an ad-based model won’t work is also a bit of a red herring, as it assumes that there really are only two options out there: pay wall or ads. I’d argue that’s not true — that there are many other models, including hybrids. Also, it ignores the flipside of the equation, which is that some of the new models have very different cost structures.

I come away from this Round One feeling that Mike Masnick is immersed in online culture and understands both its strengths and weaknesses. Carr sounds all too familiar, the old-school print writer who suddenly has solutions borne out of desperation and no small amount of resentment for a different medium.