There’s a lot of chatter about a Forrester Research report suggesting that 80% of Internet users in North America won’t pay for online newspaper and magazine content. This bolsters the contention that pay-to-play within the online content world is a non-starter.

But what if you flip the Forrester report upside down, and consider the fact 20% of North American Internet users are willing to pay for content. That’s a fairly encouraging number in the wake of the widespread belief that online content should be free.

The obvious question is what kind of content will people pay to read. My sense is that high-profile brands such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Financial Times, Wall St. Journal, the New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, et al could attract a significant number of customers because their content is deemed to have value – and not seen as a commodity.

Personally, I’d pay $5 or $10 a month to have full access – Web, mobile – to the New York Times. Heck, I’d probably pay $5/month just to read the New York Times Sunday Magazine.

Maybe my belief in the viability of the pay wall is off the mark but I do believe there is content worth paying to access, and I believe there are many people willing to pay for it.

For more, check out this blog post on ReadWriteWeb by Frederic Lardinois.