The advantage is that you get the best of both fee and free worlds. The disadvantage is that you may anger consumers, especially regular customers, like Rich who later find out that they paid while others didn't.
I don't know what happened. This morning when I went to the site, that story was definitely marked with a "premium content" icon. Now it's gone. I suppose I could ask for my money back.
It's been widely linked to through the Daypop search engine: http://www.daypop.com/search?q=The+trees+fight+back&t=a
Perhaps it was not free the first day? In that case, I'd rather wait than pay. Otherwise, I'd wonder about that editor who didn't tell you that -- he or she flunks customer service.
