Wednesday, September 14, 2005

N.Y. TIMES TRIES TO BREAK INTERNET

Starting on Monday, Maureen Dowd is gonna cost you fifty bucks a year -- a solidly cheap rate if she was a hooker, but a little pricey for someone who types her opinions for a living.

To the conservatives: Same goes for David Brooks. He's become a Timeswhore, too.

The newspaper of record will start charging for its columnists via a new program called TimesSelect. News will stay free -- for now -- but if Net traffic for the columns doesn't drop much, expect to see the Times start charging for other content.

Editor & Publisher has a write-up here.

Screw this noise. No offense to Dowd or Brooks or Paul Krugman or Tom Friedman or even the windy Frank Rich (who insists on writing 3,000 words when 775 will do), but this is a tremendously stupid idea.

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