It’s really happening. Next Monday, The New York Times will inaugurate its “Times Select” subscription service. NYTimes.com will remain free, with much of the usual content still available (including multimedia), but op-eds and columnists will be pay-only. Oh well, the Washington Post opinion page is better anyway. The 100-article-per-month archive access is slightly tempting though.
The Times is betting that significant numbers of readers will shell out, just like they do for a premium channel on cable. Can the Times be the HBO of web news? Casual reader poll: who’s thinking of paying?
(link: Letter From the Editor explaining the new service to readers)
if:book
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the Times Select service is free for subscribers to the print edition. this is simiiar to textbook publishers giving electronic versions and supplements away for free. we’ll know the publishing landscape has changed fundamentally when the electronic editions no longer come for free with the dead-tree versions.
We’ll know the publishing industry has changed fundamentally if NY Times Select is still around 5 years from now, and if there’s a Washington Post Select, and a LA Times Select, and a Charlotte Observer Select.
Or alternately we’ll know it has changed fundamentally if there are all those things and nobody cares, because they get all their news from blogs.