I use the NY Times as my home page. When they charged a few years ago for access to their top op ed articles, I subscribed and enjoyed it.

Would I subscribe again? Probably…..depending.

I think the NY Times is the top newspaper in the country with the top writers I can undersand why the Fox News fans would thinK otherwise but I’m certain they don’t visit to the web site now, even though it’s free.

In my heart, I always thought free access to newspaper would not last. It’s sad but, hey, everyone has to make a buck. Even the Fox News folks would agree with that.

I do think the landscape is going to change, but I think what will emerge will likely be that the big pieces are behind pay walls and more analogous to a magazine subscription than a newspaper. I imagine a lot of news will become more “free.” Sadly this probably will mean the end for a lot of large institutions as we know them.

I do support the local news, but probably get the rest from random sources on the ‘net.

We agree, mostly – I like to browse the comments and snark at Gawker (more so the older incarnations, not so much the new) just for fun. My disagreement there is that they don’t really profit from “real” journalism, since I see that just as a springboard for what it is they do.

I am torn – I want good, serious journalism to exist. I believe it needs to, and that society desperately needs it to. But I am guilty of not searching it out or supporting it the way it should be supported, and that makes me pretty hypocritical.

Monetization will only get you part of the way and if people are willing to pay for your product, then I don’t think you’re honor-bound to give it away any more than I am to fix people’s websites for free. Writing a good article takes hours and if you can find people to pay for it, go for it. We’ll see if it works out for the NYT.

Your argument about paying for internet is facetious. The NYT doesn’t see any of that money. Sure, it’s a reason why you don’t want to pay more, but it’s not like you’re already paying them anything.

That said, if your taxes are already paying for something like this, it’s worth using it through your library. :)

Jeccica Simpson
primitivelyours@hotmail.com

The hate is there because I find most of their articles utterly vapid and the childish snarky crap gets tired after awhile. Although Jezebel (another Gawker site, yes?) has some gems at times. Even then, the comments are often more entertaining than the pieces themselves.

ANYHOO, my overall bitching was about the lack of decent journalism out there. I love John Stewart for what he is–comedy. The fact that so many are turning to the show for actual news is what irks me. There’s just too much fluff and not enough info. Perhaps I’m biased because I live in Los Angeles and my nightly news is often about boob jobs, celebrities and car chases? I just find it irritating that with all these major news sources out there, I most often have to turn to “alternative” sources for actual information.

I agree with the other posts that NYT must find way to target their loyal readers for an online charge: Questoin is where what/how will they do? Taking into account they will not start charging until 2011 then they are more than likely reading Free Blogs to find out what the public is thinking before making any decision: which they are taking advantage of the system also.

Personally I don’t see how this will work for NYT.

They did not react in time.