Matt Toledo and Geneva Overholser discuss paywalls during a weekly Director's Forum at the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism.

As the news business shifts and changes, the way we consume our news will have to change too, the CEO and publisher of the Los Angeles Business Journal said Tuesday.

During an Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism roundtable discussion, LABJ's Matt Toledo led a conversation with 30 students and staff focused on how news organizations charge — or don't charge — for content.

Toledo said news organizations should follow the lead of the Wall Street Journal and charge for almost all online content.

"I think everyone is lacking courage," Toledo told Geneva Overholser, Annenberg's Director of Journalism. "At one point, newspapers all apparently decided to put everything online for free, so there's no reason why they can't decide to push it in the opposite direction."

But charging for content is easier said than done, Overholser said. Niche publications like LABJ have an audience more willing to pay the price for content compared to a general-interest newspaper like the Los Angeles Times. And years of free broadcast news and free online content have primed readers' expectations. 

"We've essentially trained the American people to think they don't have to pay for news," Overholser said. "Convincing them otherwise would be a huge cultural change."

Toledo said if reporters could produce unique, interesting and informative stories, people would pay. One way to do that would be applying a certain angle, like a business slant, to social issue stories. For example, covering immigration's economic impact could draw a wider platform of readers than a more "emotional" story.

His only paywall exceptions would be students and teachers. (His site charges $99.99 a year for a normal subscription and $1.00 for students.)

Toledo also said news organizations will have to adjust to lower profit margins. The boom years of the '80s and '90s left newspapers with fat profit margins of sometimes more than 30 percent. Now, even a successful business would be happy with 5 to 10 percent. 

Sharing content for free on sites like Twitter and Facebook wouldn't be an issue either, as long as the sharing included the name of the publication and links back to their site, Toledo said.

"For years, people have walked down to the public library and gotten a book for free instead of buying it for $10 at the bookstore," Toledo said. "So I see nothing wrong with that, as long as it elevates the brand."

Reach staff reporter Laura J. Nelson here.

Follow her on Twitter: @laura_nelson.