NYTimes Paywall Coming Soon

In last week's post, I ranted about the horrible ads on New York Times and proclaimed my willingness to pay for their content. Turns out, the Times is on it. Mashable.com reports (on the Wall Street Journal's actual reporting) that NYTimes.com will start charging for some content in January 2011. Subscribers to the print edition will receive online access for free and visitors who mainly come to the site via search engines and links will likely never be asked to pay, so the company does not expect a big impact on overall traffic -- which is important for advertising revenue. Times executive editor Bill Keller says it just comes down to business. “It costs money to do the kind of deeply reported journalism our readers expect, and it’s well worth paying for." Couldn't agree more, Bill, especially since this week I actually got video ads on the Times homepage.