Online advertising triumps at New York Times
The New York Times reported today that it would abandon paid access to certain parts of its online content and make the entire online edition accessible for free. The paid access service called TimeSelect had been introduced in 2005, wherein for $7.95 per month, subscribers would get access to the editorial and columnists opinions along with NYT archives. The columnists’ content were indeed premium and I had subscribed to it for a few months in 1996. But the problem was that the monthly subscription price seemed too steep. While I lamented losing access to Tom Friedman’s brilliant columns, $7.95/month just did not seem like a good value. Besides, I was still able to read most other parts of NYTimes for free anyways.