'Bout darn time(s)

Published on September 18 2007

Times to Stop Charging for Parts of Its Web Site - New York Times

The New York Times will stop charging for access to parts of its Web site, effective at midnight Tuesday night. The move comes two years to the day after The Times began the subscription program, TimesSelect, which has charged $49.95 a year, or $7.95 a month, for online access to the work of its columnists and to the newspaper’s archives. TimesSelect has been free to print subscribers to The Times and to some students and educators.

I was *not* one of those students. And it was one of the most irritating aspects of following links-- to click on a story and find that it was behind a subscription. I always thought that the Times could probably generate more revenue through advertising on free views than it did through the subscription service, and it looks like they have decided that's true. The Times used to be my first stop in the morning; looks like I'll be getting back into that habit! :-D