TIMES MAY PULL PLUG ON PAY SITE
The New York Times’ subscription-only online service TimesSelect could be nearing its end.
Long a favorite of Times Co. Chairman Arthur “Pinch” Sulzberger Jr. and President Janet Robinson, insiders say a growing chorus of people within the paper are lobbying to shut down the two-year-old service, which charges Web visitors to access columns from David Brooks, Maureen Dowd, Frank Rich, Paul Krugman, Bob Herbert, Nicholas D. Kristof and Thomas L. Friedman.
“It a hot potato,” said one insider. “There’s a lot of pushing to do away with it.”
Indeed, even several of the columnists who make up TimesSelect are said to have expressed reservations privately about the service when it launched, and little has changed their minds since then.
TimesSelect has 225,000 subscribers who pay $49.95 a year for the service, although subscribers to the print edition are able to get access as part of their subscription to the newspaper. The service is said to be making money, and Sulzberger and Robinson support keeping it going.
But they may be among the few within the company who think TimesSelect is a good idea for the long haul, said the insider.
Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis was not exactly enthusiastic in articulating the company’s support of the service.
“While TimesSelect is very popular and we have certainly met and exceeded our goals since it began in 2005, we continue to evaluate the best approach to our business.”
Pulling the plug on TimesSelect would be another black eye for Sulzberger, who’s had a difficult year amid shareholder unrest over a lackluster stock performance.
“There are many who think they would be better just sending it globally and selling advertising against it rather than operating a toll booth,” the insider said.