• by Ken Liebeskind , December 28, 2001

Go to Nytimes.com and you can read The New York Times by clicking links to the stories you want to read. But now the Times offers an electronic edition of the paper that is an exact replica of the print version.

Working with NewsStand, a tech provider in Austin, TX, the Times offers readers the opportunity to download an electronic version of the paper that looks just like the printed one, from the original masthead to articles, photos and even advertising.

It is so much like the printed version that the Times is selling it the same way, by single copy and subscription. A seven-day subscription costs $6.70 per week, same as the paper version, according to Tony Usnik, a company spokesman.

The edition allows the Times to be read in this format anywhere in the world. It also enables the Times to sell two subscriptions to individual subscribers, if they want both versions.

The electronic version is only available to readers with high speed Internet access. The size of the download, from 3 to 20 Mb, necessitates a high-speed connection, Usnik says.

Readers connect to the electronic edition via the Net but can sign off the Net after they download it.

As of Dec. 21, the Times had sold 2,300 subscriptions and 3,000 single copies, Usnik says.

The Audio Bureau of Circulations will count copies of the electronic edition as paid circulation. Advertisers will get the extra audience, but they won't be charged an additional fee. The same ads that appear in the New York edition of the paper appear in the electronic edition. Thus, it is unlike Nytimes.com, which has its own advertisers, distinct from the paper's.

NewsStand was unavailable for comment. The company also publishes electronic editions of many international newspapers, including The Press (New Zealand), The Sunday Times (South Africa), Internazionale (Italy) and Daily Express (UK). It also publishes an electronic edition of the Harvard Business Review.