TimesSelect, R.I.P.?

[babylonsister]

http://www.slate.com/id/2170453/

snip//

Will TimesSelect Go Jane? Is the infamous NYT TimesSelect paywall about to disappear? kf hears rumblings that the paper is about to abandon the whole misconceived project in which it has blocked unpaid Web access to its op-ed columnists. ... P.S.: The Times claims fewer than 225,000 customers pay the $49.95 TimesSelect fee, up less than 100,000 from what the paper was claiming in November, 2005. More get the service through their regular subscriptions. Meanwhile, the Times could use the ad revenue that would come from increasing the readership of the columnists (by making them free). And the columnists would like to have the readers. ... All this was quite evident two years ago when Pinch Sulzberger embarked on this folly, of course. .... 3:23 P.M.

[supernova]

1. Good, I've stayed off the NYTimes site

for the most part since they started that idiotic scheme. Before that I glanced at it at once a day, anyway.

I don't want to go to a site where certain things are "free" and others are PPV only. That is a shyte.

[Salviati]

3. same here, I used to go there all the time

but severely curtailed my visits to nytimes after they pulled that crap. It would be a welcome change.

[Igel]

6. IF you have an academic e-mail address, there is no

pay option: They want to build their base so they make it free to students and faculty.

[sharp_stick]

2. That would be a good move

I hated that idea and wasn't about to pay just to read op/eds. I don't think this kind of paid access works too well for companies. CNN just canned their idiotic Pipeline service because nobody paid for it IIRC.

[applegrove]

4. I hope so. I miss the columnists terribly.

[siri2k]

5. Hopefully, it will disappear! n/t