The New York Times has stopped charging for most sections of its website, including its TimeSelect content, and a large chunk of their archives. The reason for the change:
“What changed, The Times said, was that many more readers started coming to the site from search engines and links on other sites instead of coming directly to NYTimes.com. These indirect readers, unable to get access to articles behind the pay wall and less likely to pay subscription fees than the more loyal direct users, were seen as opportunities for more page views and increased advertising revenue.”
This is a welcome move within the online community, but it is more than a small footnote that the TimeSelect service had 227,000 paying subscribers and generated about $10 million a year in revenue.
Now that the archives are opened up, Jason Kottke has unearthed some “gems from the archive of the New York Times.”