Luckily, Simon brought it up again today at the Icarus blog (SFW, for the time being), noting that this is no normal online manga: Shuuhou is trying out a new micropayment system. Basically in an attempt to supplement his income from the print version, the manga will be available online one month after it's printed, presumably on a chapter-by-chapter basis, for a small fee.
(If you're curious as to its relation: Black Jack ni Yoroshiku isn't directly related to Osamu Tezuka's Black Jack, though it does revolve around a doctor-- this one a trainee who is learning about the many sides of the profession. It's fairly popular and was even developed into a live-action drama.)
Shuuhou has been talking a lot about how mangaka don't make as much money as they really should be entitled to. It'll be interesting to see if he has more success with this system than comics publishers in Japan or the US have had with online manga in the past: although NETCOMICS seems to be doing well enough with its system, which is $0.25 chapter “rentals” online and then printed tankobon-style books.
What do you think? Obviously this is a system in Japan, not the US, but if, say, Rinne was available online only for a small fee rather than for free, would you still read it? How much would you be willing to pay per chapter, bearing in mind that it's being released the same day it gets printed in Japan?
