NY Times to Charge for On-line Articles

The New York Times will make a policy change in 2011 that will affect college students and other readers who get information from the Times on a regular basis. The NY Times will begin to charge for access to its articles. There will be exceptions for casual or very infrequent on-line readers. The details have not been announced according to the linked article.

As the "Newspaper of Record", as it refers to itself, the Times is very valuable for students and anyone who wants to stay informed. The terms of the new policy, and especially how much the Times will charge, will determine how readers will be impacted.

Many other publications will be watching this policy to see if it works, and if it might work for them. Many publications, including the Times, are loosing subscribers to the printed versions of their publications. Collecting, writing, and distributing information costs a lot of money, particularly for a paper like the Times which attempts to cover all important stories, all around the world. This is an attempt to collect money from the users of the service so it can keep publishing.