According to its first-quarter earnings, The New York Times has sold more than 100,000 digital subscriptions since it launched the pay wall three weeks ago. Should these paying subscribers continue their subscriptions, NYT stands to earn somewhere around $20 million in the year. That's a big "if", however, as four-week trial subscriptions were just $0.99 – a far cry from the $15-$35 required per month, depending on the depth of content requested.

The New York Times set a goal of 300,000 subscriptions for the year. Traffic to NYTimes.com has decreased, although Times Co. CEO Janet Robinson said it was "within our expectations."

The pay-wall experiment is far from over. But if NYT is any indication, consumers are willing to pay for quality content. This, and other recent developments such as Google's latest updates to promote quality content, show that content not only remains King but has been promoted to Emperor. The content wars are about to begin ... what's in your arsenal?