I think they were referring to the idea of free as in many sites and services that we now consider free will not be free in the future. There might be fees attached to things like our emails sites, our blogs, newspapers, etc. I think it dealt with the whole advertising model not being as lucrative as people think (although it seems Google is finding a way to make it work).
I am just using those as an example, not as what was mentioned in the article. I will see if I can find it and post a link.