Friday, June 01, 2007

The Grey Lady Has A Deal For You

Students: the NY Times now offers "TimesSelect" for free to college students.

This gets you access to some of the columns (including Krugman, Thomas Friedman, David Brooks and Nicholas Kristof) and features not available on the "free" web site, as well as archives since 1981.
Its an interesting example of how "the media" is groping to find a "business model" that works in the internet age. Very few newspapers have had much success with charging for content (the Wall St. Journal and Financial Times may be counter-examples). One can certainly see some price discrimination in the Times' strategy - as well as an attempt to shape the habits of consumers while they're young (reading the Times every day is one of the best habits I acquired in my youth).
The really good news is that the new policy applies to anyone with a ".edu" e-mail address, so us liberal college professors no longer have to pay the "tax" of $50 per year to read Paul Krugman.

No good times, no bad times,
There's no times at all,
Just The New York Times,
Sitting on the windowsill
Near the flowers.
- Paul Simon, "Overs" (1967)

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