New York Times Select (paid access) section to close and become open to all

[mouser]

Good news for those who like to read the New York Times online.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The New York Times Co said on Monday it will end its paid TimesSelect Web service and make most of its Web site available for free in the hopes of attracting more readers and higher advertising revenue.

TimesSelect will shut down on Wednesday, two years after the Times launched it, which charges subscribers $7.95 a month or $49.95 a year to read articles by columnists such as Maureen Dowd and Thomas Friedman.

http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSWEN101120070918?feedType=RSS&feedName=internetNews&rpc=22&sp=true

[Lashiec]

Well, that's some good news, they must be feeling the pressure of Internet-only media... Do you still have to register to read some content or will be open as well?

[Darwin]

This is good news. I wish the Globe and Mail would do the same. I enjoy reading news from around the world and getting different perspectives on news items. I've been frustrated many times while viewing the NYT website because the content that I wanted to view is available with a subscription only. This will alleviate that problem nicely! The G&M makes all of its headline news in each section available free, so this isn't such a problem BUT a lot of the op-ed pieces are subscription only and I'm missing out!

[lanux128]

in the early days of the internet i remember reading for free articles by various columnists around the world.. quirky, satirical pieces, prominent among them are Paul Doyle of Irish Times and Kevin Cowherd from Baltimore Sun..