The New York Times is to start charging readers of its online site once they read a certain number of free articles, dpa quoted the newspaper as announcing today. The statement did not detail how much it would charge or how many articles readers would be able to access for free, but said that the new pricing plan would be introduced in early 2011. Widely regarded as the leading US newspaper, The New York Times had been grappling for years with how to maintain profitability as readers moved from its print version to the web, where advertising rates are much lower and people are accustomed to accessing content for free. The paper said that readers will be asked to pay a flat fee for unlimited access after reading a certain number of articles for free. Subscribers to the newspaper's print edition will receive full access to the site. "This announcement allows us to begin the thought process that's going to answer so many of the questions that we all care about," Arthur Sulzberger Jr, the company chairman and publisher of the newspaper, said. "We can't get this halfway right or three-quarters of the way right. We have to get this really, really right." Currently The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times are the only major newspapers to charge for web access. Changes introduced by the Times are certain to be closely watched by other media companies, which have been scared of charging for access for fear of driving away readers. "This is a bet, to a certain degree, on where we think the Web is going," Sulzberger said. "This is not going to be something that is going to change the financial dynamics overnight."
