TIMES UP FOR FREE COLUMNS ON PAPER'S WEB SITE (NY Times Charging $49.95/year, Drudge to yank links)

NY Post ^ | 9/14/05 | KEITH J. KELLY

[jimbo123]

The New York Times, which had been operating an all-free Web site, nytimes.com, will begin charging a fee for access to its major columnists under a new program called Times Select.

Starting Sept. 19, the New York Times will charge $49.95 a year for online users to access 22 columnists including Tom Friedman, David Brooks, Maureen Dowd, Paul Krugman, Bob Herbert, Nicholas Kristof and Frank Rich.

-snip-

Cybergossip Matt Drudge is threatening to boot the Times columnists.

"I will yank the Times scribes if I can't find other outlets that are planning to carry them," threatened Drudge. "The Internet is losing its innocence."

[ChadGore]

If the charges where reversed, most proud conservatives would pass.

The opinion pieces @ the NYT are tedious, and infantile.

It's sad that the NYT is using the Internet to funnel cash direct from liberal DNC members to the opinion writers.

It's so very . . . intellectually masturbatory.

I look forward to an enterprising lawyer getting the opinion page billing list in the interest of transparency and accountability to their readers.

[TX Bluebonnet]

They're following Salon down the rabbit hole.

[Semper Paratus]

Drudge is a great base-line site for testing pop-up stoppers.

[new cruelty]

Hmm... you may be onto something there. nytimes could have a cover charge for men only, ladies read for free. : )