A free community newspaper and online news publication has decided to go pay-for-play. Morris Communications’ Bluffton Today, from Bluffton, South Carolina, will begin charging readers for both its print and online editions starting in December.

The move, discussed by journalism training and ethics organization Poynter, is creating plenty of chatter over on the site’s forums. Not surprisingly, many of the responses are angry and negative.

To be fair, the fee won’t be astronomical. The paper will charge a measly quarter for its weekday and Saturday editions and 75 cents for the Sunday paper. It’ll keep its blogs and other online content open for free, charging only for the digital version of the daily publication.

It’s an atypical step, perhaps — but at a time when so many newspapers are scaling back or shutting down, charging a quarter or three for a seemingly in-demand local service isn’t unreasonable. It’s more unusual to me that the company’s been offering the thing for free all this time. While you can understand how people used to a free service would be taken aback at the idea of having to pay, this shift doesn’t seem to warrant widespread whining.

One does wonder, though, whether other free publications will ultimately follow suit. Will we soon start seeing various weeklies and other local freebies asking for fees? Might not be out of the realm of reason.