NYT May Free Paid Online Content

The New York Times' decision to wall off some of its most popular writers' content and much of its archives was never a very popular one. As Romenesko notes, the New York Post reports that the newspaper will reverse that two-year-old move after all.

After rumors and reports that top management has been rethinking its online content, the Post says the Times will end the subscription-only TimesSelect service that requires fees to read top columnists, including Maureen Dowd, Thomas Friedman, and Frank Rich, along with other content and archives. 

It's a move that makes sense, even though the Times' editors have made no official announcement saying so yet. Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis told the Post: "We continue to evaluate the best approach for NYTimes.com."

Simply, the numbers show it's not the right direction for online content. While subscribers to the paper like me get access to TimesSelect articles and archives at no extra charge, others need to pay $8 a month or $50 a year. And those subscribers are declining in number—from 224,000 in April to 221,000 in June.

Industry forecasts this week indicate that online advertising will exceed newspaper advertising in 2011. Combined with the drop in subscribers, it's another good reason for the Times to changes its online approach.

Now that Rupert Murdoch will be at the helm of the Wall Street Journal and all of Dow Jones' online ventures, it will be interesting to see if that venerable media company changes its subscription-based structure online.

Where do you stand? Do you or would you pay for online content from a favorite newspaper or publication, or has that ship long ago sailed?

LINK: New York Times to end paid Web service: report [Reuters]

Related: Extra! Extra!