Do you read the New York Times online then get ready to pay for access to online content

Nooo! I read the NYT religiously, even during the half of the year I spend in England! I guess this means I'll finally have to switch over to The Times or The Telegraph...but tbh, I find the Grey Lady much, much better-written than any of the comparable English papers; there's a fluidity and fluency of style, whereas I find English papers to be written much more "informally" - it's distracting, and slightly counterintuitive, given the stereotypes we Yanks have of the Brits.

I really don't read the Times - online or at the newsstand. I used to read it for the job section, but haven't been to the site, not bought a paper in a couple of years.

Bah, well they'll lose a lot of people.

@hhusted I do love the NYT's travel section especially their 36 hours in such a such city. I am waiting to see how this pay for content model works out though as a freelance online writer. Wonder it will help augment rates for writers ??

They're shooting themselves in the foot, seems like to me. NYTimes is one of the most talked about papers, ie, "Did you see today's Times article on...?" and without that accessibility it'll just become an obscure niche market. Just speculating here, though I'm curious how this would play out for them. I'm pretty much against paying for anything online.

Most people get their news online and for FREE. Someone should tell the NYTimes.

@BroadwayBK its not the NYT but Rupert Murdoch who is responsible for this -http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/nov/09/murdoch-google. I guess they learn nothing from the airlines case study apparently the most successful airlines are not the ones that charge fees for every little service but those which dont i.e. southwest

In fact there is going to be a seminar of this hotly debated topic here in NYC on Feb 19th 2010-http://paidcontent.org/event/paidcontent-2010/ at the TheTimesCenter 242 West 41st Street (between Seventh and Eighth Avenues) tickets to the seminar cost$895 and include breakfast lunch, dinner and an end of the session mixer. It will interesting to see what is concluded

I heard from an insider that the main reason for charging for online content is the paper is struggling financially. The source told me the paper is on the verge of bankruptcy and is trying to avoid that. They figure if they can charge for online content, at least they can make some kind of revenue to help balance their books, so as to get them back in the black.

Charge the advertisers, if they want revenue!

yeah... I know magazines make virtually all of their money from advertisements, and the more readers they have, the more they can charge for ads. seems like they're shooting themselves in the foot here.

@Uraniumfish: They already charge advertisers. The problem is that the paper doesn't have that much advertising that they used to. The paper lost 45 million in advertising last year. That is money they won't get back. So the paper is trying to figure out how to replace the revenue they are losing from lack of advertising. It may be a losing cause if the advertising doesn't pick up soon.

@everyone the launch of Apple's ipad today maybe just have sounded the death knell for the printed word. I for one am intensely curious to see how my favorite fashion magazines ( Elle, Marie Claire, Vogue) will transfer into electronic form?

@ uptowngirl You think that iPad will catch on? In the same report I read, they said stocks went down today, after the announcement, and I wondered why that would be exactly.

I am the first to admit I'm dying for an iPad. However - magazines are great mostly because of their beautiful, glossy pages. I already miss them..... @uptowngirl I think a lot of magazines have already translated themselves. I know for some reason Nylon sends me an electronic copy every month - complete with pages you can digitally turn.

@Uraniumfish and @BroadwayBK I do think the ipad will catch on simply because Apple has a cult like following at least in the western world. Moreover we all seem to want all kinds of information to be readily available to us even when we are on the go. I havent yet given up my Nokia smartphone for a Blackberry or an iphone like most of my peers but I think I will want an ipad if it it will allow me to access to all my US based newspapers and magazines when I am overseas at not so astronomical prices . Currently if you order US magazines abroad you tend to pay hefty courier charges, having an ipad may help me circumvent these charges though I think the ipad will first launch only in the US market as I read somewhere that it will be tied with AT&T's data package.

@Uraniumfish: Any time a new product is released the company loses on stocks initially only because of the expense of creating the product. This expense reduces revenue, which shareholders do not like. Once the device catches on and begins making money for Apple, the stocks will go up.

@hhusted apparently Apple has a leagle battle on its hands for the name ipad was trademarked in 2002 by Fujistu you would think a company like Apple would have checked that before it launched its product.

Actually uptowngirl, your guess is as good as mine. I figure Steve Jobs probably thinks he is so mighty for having a successful business that he doesn't have to check, that he can deal with copyright and trademark infringements when they arise.

@uptowngirl This one's pretty funny: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/29/technology/29name.html?hp Just in from the sarcastic commentators, we now have the "iTampon" too.

That said, uptowngirl, at a cost of $500 I would seriously consider buying this one. My current laptop is really bad anyway.