TimesSelect was launched two years ago and subscribers paid $49.95 a year to get access to the Times’ most revered columnists and premium content. NYTimes.com has the largest online newspaper traffic in the US, with about 13 million monthly unique visitors. TimesSelect had about 227,000 paying subscribers in August and generated about $10 million annual revenue.

The move had been foreseen, but the shuttering of TimesSelect sends a clear message to the news industry (although there remain few newspapers that have paid-for online services): in the era of online and free content, it is more profitable to attract many readers and generate ad revenue than to count on paid-for content.

"We now believe by opening up all our content and unleashing what will be millions and millions of new documents, combined with phenomenal growth, that that will create a revenue stream that will more than exceed the subscription revenue," said Vivian Schiller, senior vice-president and general manager of NYTimes.com, in a letter to readers.

"Since we launched TimesSelect in 2005, the online landscape has altered significantly. Readers increasingly find news through search, as well as through social networks, blogs and other online sources.”

Schiller thus acknowledges the crucial role of social networks, search engines and blogs in generating traffic. No need to remind that many newspapers viewed these three online products as a threat for a long time. But faced with the reality and changes of the “online landscape,” these ‘threats’ now appear to serve the Times' brand name and commercial interests.

"In light of this shift, we believe offering unfettered access to New York Times reporting and analysis best serves the interest of our readers, our brand and the long-term vitality of our journalism."

"The more page views you have, the more you can sell," said Alan Mutter, former editor at the San Francisco Chronicle and Newsosoar blogger. "In the immediate moment it's a perfectly good idea."

"It would be an expensive thing to do in the short term [but] in the long term, it may be a wonderful thing to do," Rupert Murdoch had said about removing online paywalls after he acquired the Wall Street Journal.

The Times didn’t say how many more readers it hoped to attract through this move, or what its financial goals are.

Times users will still be charged if they want to access archived articles between 1923 and 1986. But most readers will be thrilled to be able to read the 23 news and opinion columnists that were previously behind the paywall (and generated huge traffic before TimesSelect was put up).

We’ll return with more insight and quotes about TimesSelect by the end of the day.

Source: Reuters – European Journalism Centre - New York Times Co. – Brand Republic