A little over a year ago, the New York Times put most of their opinion columns and online archives behind a subscription wall and called it Times Select. It suddenly cost fifty smackers a year to read Maureen Dowd and Paul Krugman and the others and I, for one, shelled out for it…but just for the first year. A few weeks into that year, I discovered that everything I cared about was being posted for free in many locations around the web…all it took was a wee bit of searching.
I wrestled a bit with my conscience about not re-upping my sub. I think they have every right to charge for the material, just as I have every right not to pay it…and if I don't pay it, I shouldn't be able to read it. I finally decided it wasn't worth the fifty bananas and now I do without…to some extent. I do read the excerpts some sites quote under "fair use" and, shame on me, if I come across a Frank Rich column quoted in full somewhere, I do not avert my eyes. All I can say in my defense is that it's probably the most dishonest thing I do, aside from accepting money for Groo.
This week however, I can walk in the sunshine like an honest person. I'm not likely to be paid anything for Groo in the next seven days and I can read all those columnists, sans guilt. This week is Free Access Week over at Times Select…a fine time to catch up on all the Krugman you may have missed.
And you can wonder if the reason they're doing this is because it's now been around thirteen months since they started this deal and I'm probably not the only charter subscriber who disappeared on them when Year One was up. What kind of drop-off did they experience? I'll bet it was formidable.