In September, I predict a significant decline in blogosphere mentions and links to
David Brooks, Maureen Dowd, Tom Friedman, Bob Herbert, Nicholas Kristof, Paul Krugman, Frank Rich, John Tierney, Dave Anderson, Peter Applebome, Harvey Araton, Dan Barry, Clyde Haberman, Gretchen Morgenson, Joe Nocera, Floyd Norris, Joyce Purnick, William Rhoden, Selena Roberts, George Vescey, Roger Cohen, and John Vinocur:
The New York Times announced today that it will start charging for some online content, beginning in September.
The new, premium level of membership will be called TimesSelect, and participants will have exclusive access to Op-Ed and news columnists on NYTimes.com, easy and in-depth access to the paper's online archives, and early access to certain articles on the site, among other features.
Home-delivery subscribers will automatically receive TimesSelect membership. For non-subscribers, it will cost $49.95. Most news, features, and multimedia on the Times site will remain free.
"This is a great offering," Martin Nisenholtz, senior vice president of digital operations, said in a statement. "TimesSelect combines the insights and ideas of distinctive voices from The Times and IHT with seamless access to our archives in an unprecedented way and at a terrific price point. At the same time, by keeping the majority of the site free, we will continue to scale the business through strong advertising growth."
TimesSelect features will include:
• Exclusive access to columnists including David Brooks, Maureen Dowd, Tom Friedman, Bob Herbert, Nicholas Kristof, Paul Krugman, Frank Rich, John Tierney, Dave Anderson, Peter Applebome, Harvey Araton, Dan Barry, Clyde Haberman, Gretchen Morgenson, Joe Nocera, Floyd Norris, Joyce Purnick, William Rhoden, Selena Roberts, George Vescey, Roger Cohen, and John Vinocur.
The again, maybe Maureen, Tom, Bob, Nicholas, Paul, and Frank lobbied for this to try and end the barbs from the peanut gallery and stifle the ridicule they have found themselves subjected to with ever increasing frequency of late. If Newsweek suddenly adopts a pay per view strategy it will serve as confirmation of my thesis.
I'll go a step further: google's highest ranked hit for Maureen Dowd... well, I jumped the gun a bit.
Posted by: Liam at 04:03 AM