• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, June 4, 2014

Remember TimesSelect, The New York Times’ short-lived digital subscription offering for people who only wanted access to the newspaper’s op-ed content, launched in 2005 and shuttered in 2007? Well, the NYT is brushing off the idea of a digital subscription devoted solely to op-ed content with a new digital product, NYT Opinion, unveiled this week.
 
NYT Opinion offers a standalone subscription to all NYT’s opinion coverage, as well as a continuous feed of NYT commentary and aggregation of opinion and commentary from other reputable sources.
 
The subscription costs $6 for every four weeks, considerably less than other subscription options, including basic access to the Web site and smartphone apps, which costs $15 every four weeks; access to Web site and tablet apps for $20 every four weeks; and the all-access option, including NYT Now and NYT Opinion, for $35 every four weeks.

The NYT Opinion app is also available to free to all home delivery subscribers.
 
According to the New York Times Co. NYT Opinion is among the first in a series of new paid products the company will introduce in 2014, offering access to specific areas of coverage at a lower price.

In April, the company launched a low-price digital sub option, NYT Now, a new app that costs $8 for four weeks of access and gives subscribers access to the most important NYT content, including videos, infographics and slide shows, as well as content from around the Web. NYT Now also offers a “Morning Briefing” and an “Evening Briefing,” summarizing events in top news categories, as well as “Our Picks,” presenting content from other sites.
 
At the other end of the spectrum, Times Premier, costing $45 for every four weeks, offers the most engaged NYT readers expanded content offerings, including the “Times Insider,” which provides a behind-the-scenes look at how the newsroom creates content. Subscribers will also receive exclusive access to TimesTalks, consisting of new and archived videos of NYT journalists interviewing important figures from all walks of life; two TBooks per month, offering compilations of articles from the archives devoted to a single subject; and a number of other features including crosswords, family access and gift subscriptions.
 
As print advertising continues to decline, NYTCO is increasingly reliant on circulation revenues, with most recent growth coming from the sale of digital subscriptions. But growth in digital subs has gradually slowed since NYT first put its content behind a paywall in March 2011. Where the company added 234,000 new digital subscribers in 2012, that number slumped to 120,000 additional subscribers in 2013.

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