The New York Times, after two years of putting its columnists and archives behind a pay wall, is opening everything up again and making it free for everyone. According to NYT’s statement, they realized $10 million a year in revenue from 227,000 suckers, er, subscribers during that two years.
They claim that the program “met expectations” but that prospects of growth were low compared to the potential growth of internet advertising.
Oh, and there’s also that little issue of every New York Times columnist hidden behind the NYT firewall becoming pretty much irrelevant over the past two years. Those TimesSelect subscribers must feel a bit like people who paid $600 for an iPhone only to see the price drop to $400 two months later.
