Changing Times
ByIf you don’t get the New York Times delivered, as of today you won’t be able to read their Op-Ed columnists online—not unless you pay $49.95 a year for the privilege of a TimesSelect account. The New York Times is putting its prized writers behind a paywall.
Andrew Sullivan has some interesting things to say about it (he doesn’t understand why they’ve done it and thinks it is bad). As of tomorrow, his blog posts will be appearing on the Washington Post website as part of a four-day trial merging online newspapers with blogs.
To be fair to the Times, TimesSelect offers a lot more than just access to Op-Eds. As a New York Times subscriber, and therefore a TimesSelect member, I will at last have access to the newspaper’s archive as well as multimedia presentations like video profiles, photo essays, roundtable discussions and soon-to-be launched podcasts. That’s great for me. But what about everyone else? Doubtless, some will continue to read and comment upon Dowd and Krugman et al despite the fact that many of their readers will not be able to access their articles. But many will probably move elsewhere and the Times will be talked about less among bloggers.
It’s a phenomenon I discussed at length with Clay Shirky and Jay Rosen in interviews for the Blog! (shameless plug) book. Both of them, like Sullivan, considered it an ill-considered move for the newspaper of record. Unlike the WaPo which seems to be getting creative in its attempts to increase its online market share.
UPDATE: There’s a brief but interesting interview with Diane McNulty, the NYT’s Group Director of Community Affairs and Media Relations, over at Mediabistro. The following was of particular interest:
We expect to have an affiliate program for bloggers in place by the end of the year that will offer bloggers financial incentives to link to TimesSelect content.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Sullivan pronounces the trial a success.
