Old draft wrote it in May 18 2005 at 12:02 figured should publish itThe New York Times is going to paid subscribtion service for their op-ed and news columnists. So all you Friedman fans will have to pay to read his articles now.
It is a strange week, illness just after CNN removed their subscrition service, info and LA times did the same just earlier this year, website like this NY Times has to go backwards.
I dont know who is going to pay for this service, cause I know I won’t. Salon tried the subscrition service route for their premium content and just kept losing money and they didn’t get a profit til they they removed that divide. Now they still have subscriber service but that just removes ads and gives a couple extra perks.
The problem with the internet and subscrition service is that people dont like to pay for something they can’t hold or own in their hand especially when they are just going to read it for 5 minutes when they are sitting on a computer. When people buy magazines and news papers its not just for the content but the portablity of it. I can access the internet on my phone and read websites, but I still buy magazines cause I can take it with me anywhere and easily share it with my friends.
What the NY Times needs to do is what I told Salon create a printable version of their content in a magazine form. And now with syndicated feeds becoming more popular you can create your own news paper. Imagine picking and choose what you read in a paper and have it printed in the morning like a podcast and take it with you.