Says the New York Post, the New York Times is about to remove the paywall that conceals from public awareness its once-famous (even if smarmy and tendentious) op-ed columnists:
The New York Times is poised to stop charging readers for online access to its Op-Ed columnists and other content, The Post has learned.
After much internal debate, Times executives – including publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. – made the decision to end the subscription-only TimesSelect service but have yet to make an official announcement, according to a source briefed on the matter.
The timing of when TimesSelect will shut down hinges on resolving software issues associated with making the switch to a free service, the source said.
Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis would only say in an e-mailed statement, “We continue to evaluate the best approach for NYTimes.com.”
While other online publications were abandoning subscriptions, the Times took the opposite approach in 2005 and began charging for access to well-known writers, including Maureen Dowd, Frank Rich and Thomas L. Friedman.
I’m told there is something like this in real estate — news of dubious value jealously hoarded behind a paywall — but, since I don’t pay for ordinary information, I can’t say for sure.
Technorati Tags: disintermediation, real estate, real estate marketing
Thomas Johnson says:
I am a little slow, but is this a reference to Mr. disintermediation, Realtors make too much money, my business model would fail without full commissions except I already dumped my deal and already got mine, Bradley Inman?
August 7, 2007 — 8:32 am
Greg Swann says:
> is this a reference to
That information is stored behind a paywall. Technically searchable but, practically speaking, unavailable — and therefore irrelevant.
August 7, 2007 — 10:15 am
Andy Kaufman says:
whoops, I hit post instead of preview there.
and their influence.
August 7, 2007 — 4:40 pm
Andy Kaufman says:
Ugh.
What I meant to post was that while there are many other great columnists and bloggers, I used to like reading both Friedman and Dowd’s columns and stopped when the Times put them behind that damn iron curtain.
I’m looking forward to checking out their work again, but I’m afraid that the times just hastened their path towards irrelevance with that stupid blunder.
August 7, 2007 — 4:43 pm