N.Y. TIMES CONFIRMS PLAN TO CHARGE FOR WEB ACCESS BUT IS SHORT ON DETAILS

By R. Kinsey Lowe

The New York Times confirmed today it will start charging readers for access to its website in 2011. Editors at the Times have indicated for a long time that a pay-to-read model was inevitable, and other news sites have reported in recent weeks that the Times was expected to formally reveal its intentions at any time.

The announcement, however, was short on detail, but described the planned "metered model" as one that will allow limited access for readers who are not subscribers to the print edition but anything above a monthly quota would not be available without paying a flat fee for access. Print subscribers would have unlimited access.

Times executives said they could not answer questions about how much it would cost or how much content would remain free. The Times story "stressed that the amount of free access could change with time, in response to economic conditions and reader demand."

The Times and other newspapers have been trying to figure out how to achieve a reliable revenue stream for their websites as their income from print advertising has plummeted.

Even though the Times is one of the most-visited sites on the web, Internet advertising doesn't come close to making up for lost print revenue.

The Wall Street Journal has a web subscription model that its heaviest users accept, and the Journal's "paywall" has been in place for a long time.

Whether readers will stop visiting the New York Times site remains to be seen, but recent surveys indicate that most Internet readers remain unwilling to pay for news they have been getting essentially for free, saying they will turn elsewhere.

Many newspapers blame Google for their declining circulation and advertising, but Google and its defenders say the No. 1 search engine drives traffic to newspaper sites. They contend that it's not Google's fault that newspapers have been unable to come up with a web revenue model that works without having to charge Internet users.