The New York Times launched its paid subscription service in September 2005 to mixed reviews, especially from its op-ed staff. This week’s free trial of TimesSelect confirmed their skepticism.

Although the Gray Lady’s editorialists realized the need to experiment with online paid models, they, as well as the vast blogosphere, many of whose conversations initiated with their essays, were also aware that their online readership would drop substantially.

A good measure of their popularity is the Times’ most emailed list. Before the paid-wall came into effect, the day’s editorials were regularly listed as the most popular stories on the site, sometimes for days or the entire week.

After TimesSelect launched it became extremely rare to find Maureen Dowd or Tom Friedman on the list and they became increasingly perturbed at their stunted reach. Friedman even mentions his opposition to online paid-walls in his bestseller, The World is Flat.

For a while, it was fairly easy to find pirated versions of NYT opinion pieces on blogs which had copy-pasted articles; reading Paul Krugman and Nick Kristof could still be done through Technorati and the conversation, although hindered, continued. But gradually this practice became more difficult as the Times cracked down.

Before the TimesSelect launch, many blogger pundits who loved reading the Times op-ed page swore that they would not give in and purchase the plan and that the well-known commentators would disappear almost completely from the online conversation. TimesSelect Free Access Week proves they weren’t wrong.

Every day this week, I checked NYT’s most-emailed list several times a day to see how the temporarily liberated opinion writers were faring. On Tuesday, November 7, Tom Friedman made the list with a column entitled “Insulting our Troops, and Our Intelligence,” published on Friday, November 3. I watched it make it all the way to number three.

On Thursday, Dowd’s column, A Come-to-Daddy Moment, rapidly shot up the charts to number one, most likely due to the importance of the issue satirized (Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s resignation).

And that’s it. In four days of TimesSelect free trial (13 staff editorials in total from Nov. 5 to Nov. 10), only two columnists claimed the honor of most emailed, and one with a column written the previous week, not even close to the frequency the op-eders’ links were shared before the paywall. (Four days being Monday through Thursday, I’m writing this at about 8 a.m. Eastern Standard Time from Paris, six hours ahead. Dowd is still at number one and I realize that perhaps I am jumping the gun seeing as Friedman and Krugman could make this list over the course of Friday).

From this anything-but-scientific research, I can only conclude that TimesSelect has seriously handicapped the scope of its once most popular writers. For instance, being a follower of everything newspaper, I was well aware of the publicity stunt. Before the paywall, I used to read the Times’ columnists religiously. After the paywall, I didn’t. And quite frankly, I didn’t miss them that much because there is so much alternative quality opinion on the Web be it from newspapers or blogs. And since they are not part of my daily habits anymore, I didn’t read them for free this week either. I’m sure I’m not the only one.

It’s time for the Times to ask itself, “Is the nearly $10 million (a substantial but not extraordinarily significant sum considering NYT’s revenues), that TimesSelect (reportedly) brought in during its first year worth the loss of such prestigious influence?”

If not, will online subs last?

Ps. If any readers notice if more columnists make the most emailed list today, please let us know.

Pps. I realize I didn’t check the “Most Blogged” list so if anyone had any stats on how many of the columnists or TimesSelect content in general made that list, we would love to have that info. Thanks.

Update: Paul Krugman's piece, The Great Revulsion, about the US midterm elections sat at number 5 on the most emailed list as of 11:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on Friday, Nov. 10. Dowd was still in the top spot.

Update II: 6:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, Saturday November 11: Krugman's piece hits number one, Dowd is at number two, and Friedman's Friday article, "Chine: Scapegoat or Sputnik," at #9. In total, 4 TimesSelect op-eds have made it to the most emailed list during this free trial week.

Final update: 11:45 a.m. Eastern Standard Times, Sunday November 12: Frank Rich has made the list at #4 with 2006: The Year of the 'Macaca'". Dowd remains at #3. 5 op-eders have made it to the most emailed list this week.

Expect this number to drop significantly starting on Monday, when most people won't be able to read them without paying.