Media

New York Times to Charge for On-line Content

The New York Times has announced it will start charging $49.95 a year to access all of its newspaper content and archives beginning in September.

Read the story here:

The New York Times Co. on Monday said that, starting in September, access to Op-Ed and certain of its top news columnists on the paper’s NYTimes.com Web site will only be available through a fee of $49.95 a year. The service, known as TimesSelect, will also allow access to The Times’s online archives, early access to select articles on the site, and other features. Home-delivery subscribers will automatically receive the service, the NYT said.

I suppose the large MSM press has to recoup some fees from their declining subscriber base.

But, it seems with so many sources of content in the on-line communities, including the blogosphere, that the NYT may be narrowing their base with a concomitant loss of revenue.

This is probably not a wise business decision.

H/T Huffington Post

Update #1

The details of the TimeSelect subscription service can be found here:

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.

• TimesPast: Access to The Times’s extensive archives.

• Exclusive multimedia offerings for TimesSelect subscribers including audio and photo essays, video, and podcasts.

• TimesFile: A new tool that helps readers tag and organize articles from The Times.

• Ahead of The Times: Early access to articles that will appear in sections such as Real Estate, The New York Times Magazine, Travel, and Sunday Arts.

• TimesNewstracker: E-mail alerts to track important news topics. This service is currently sold separately but will be included as part of the TimesSelect benefits.

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