New York Times to begin charging for access to its site

The trend for paid-for online content looks set to continue.  Yesterday, the New York Times announced plans to charge users for unlimited access after a certain number of free pages per month.  The new system will be rolled out starting next year.

The newspaper's motivation is the same as others who have taken the same path: make more money from content online.  The chairman of its board confirmed that the paper believed that its most frequent readers would be willing to pay to access articles on NYTimes.com.  He is no doubt reassured by the site's enormous popularity, which often approaches 17 million users per month in the US along.  For the time being, however, the number of free articles that will be available before the site will begin charging visitors has not yet been announced.

Paid-for newspapers, round two

This isn't the first time that the Times has explored charging users for access to parts of its site.  The TimesSelect service, which was launched in 2007, charged for access to certain columnists and opinion pieces.  It managed to gain 200 000 subscribers and bring in 10 million dollars before closing down after just two years.

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