Recently I have been discussing the different values between free and paid content.

Free brings traffic, more traffic means more for advertising on your site/conversions versus less traffic and a harder time to convert sales (more work). Less work (giving away free content) is better as you can focus on making better free content. Long term free over the charge model in my mind is a better business model. Mainly because there is no added complexity for chasing your earnings. The earnings on a free model come from advertising and similar rather than having to qualify and convert sales through the paid content method.