I certainly hope that Pinch and the boys go through with this.
They tried it once before and it was a dismal failure.
Reminds me of the line from Spinal Tap, where the interviewer is asking the band's manager whether the fact that they're only able to sell tickets in smaller and smaller halls means their appeal is fading...
"No, I think it just means that their appeal is becoming more selective."
I don't necessarily have a problem with the Times charging for content. (In addition to your ironic reason.) What bothers me though are the games that they play. For a while they had it that if used current content, it was free, but if you went back more than a month, they'd charge. Then it was two weeks, then one: with no warning. Finally they went to Times Select. I didn't really miss Tom Friedman, though I enjoyed bashing him. So I didn't do that regularly.
ReplyDelete(here's a secret: if you have a public library card you probably can still get all the content free anyway. Most libraries pay to get archives from newspapers; you can access these online resources from home.)