Sunday, May 22, 2005

All the News That's Fit to Charge

It was bound to happen: The New York Times indicates that, beginning in September, it will charge for online reading of many of its op-ed contributors.

Bad move. Andrew Sullivan explains why:

"I can understand the economics of this, as newspaper circulation declines. But I wonder if, in the long run, this is a wise move on their part. By sectioning off their op-ed columnists and best writers, they are cutting them off from the life-blood of today's political debate: the free blogosphere. Inevitably, fewer people will link to them; fewer will read them; their influence will wane faster than it has already. The blog is already becoming a rival to the dated op-ed column format as a means of communicating opinion journalism."

1 Comments:

At 10:33 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Pay to read Frank Rich and Gretchen Morgenstern??? I think not. What an incredible "NY Times attitude" thing to do! Stuffy media elite thinks we will pay for their content when we have Chase for free! They just don't get it. I foresee a day when you pay a monthly fee to get a whole collection of papers. I guess free content can't last forever, but I question the content THEY consider "premium"

 

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