• New York Post, Wednesday, August 8, 2007 10:46 AM

Immediately following his monumental takeover of Dow Jones, News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch suggested that one of the media conglomerates first moves would be to make The Wall Street Journal free online. Perhaps that's what moved New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. to ditch the TimesSelect, the paper's experimental for-pay service.

For $7.95 per month or $49.95 per year, TimesSelect readers received access to the paper's well-known columnists Maureen Dowd, Thomas Friedman and Frank Rich, in addition to its extensive archives and other content at NYTimes.com. The program started in 2005, at a time when other papers (with the exception of WSJ.com) were abandoning online subscriptions. Its unclear when exactly TimesSelect will shut down, or whether annual subscribers will get their money back.

TimesSelect, which had 221,000 subscribers in June, was always controversial: Readers complained and so did columnists, who said the program stunted their readership. "We continue to evaluate the best approach for NYTimes.com," company spokeswoman Catherine Mathis said.

Read the whole story at New York Post »