Hooray! The New York Times will now stop charging for access to much of its content.
The change takes effect Tuesday night — two years after The Times started its ‘Times Select’ subscription service. Regular stories used to go behind the subscription wall after a week of availability online.
Money quote from the article: “The business model for advertising revenue, versus subscriber revenue, [has become] so much more attractive.”
This is great news for Who2 users, since we can now begin linking The Times’s in-depth articles and obituaries. Our longstanding policy is to provide only links that were freely available to everyone, with a few rare exceptions.
This recent profile of Chelsea Clinton is a fine example of an article that we couldn’t have used in the past. It includes photos and video along with many updates on her life — just a great resource. It’s now a proud part of our Chelsea Clinton profile.
So: Thank you, New York Times!
No posting on this topic would be complete without a shout-out to BBC News, which has had its magnificent archives available free online for years. Good to see the rest of the world catching up.