New D.C. museums offer variety for a price

Three new high-profile museums that charge admission fees will be vying for customers in the District this spring, but they all insist they can compete with each other as well as the city's existing free museums.

The new museums, paying homage to news, wax figures and crime and punishment, blend historical education and entertainment in a business model that the International Spy Museum pioneered.

The high-tech and entertainment aspects of the new venues — the Newseum, Madame Tussauds and the National Museum of Crime and Punishment — will differentiate them from the traditional Smithsonian Institution museums on the National Mall, economic development analysts say.