Starting tomorrow, the New York Times will abandon TimesSelect, its two year old experiment to charge for online access to its leading columnists.
Comment. When I wrote about TimesSelect two years ago, two months after it launched, it was already profitable and I suspect that it was profitable right up to the decision to shut it down. However, the Times believes that it will gain more in advertising revenue than it will lose in access fees. It will also gain in impact. From my blog post two years ago:
Mickey Kaus calculates that the increase in NYT revenue is about $6.1 million and wonders whether it was worth it. He asks a good question: if a rich conservative offered the paper $6.1 million to reduce the impact of its liberal columnists, would it have taken the offer?
Posted by
Peter Suber at 9/18/2007 09:18:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
