NY Times tries to cash in and misses the boat

Talk about not getting the big picture... From the NY Times:

Letter From the Editor
On Monday, Sept. 19, NYTimes.com will launch a new subscription service, TimesSelect, an important step in the development of The New York Times.

Subscribers to TimesSelect will have exclusive online access to many of our most influential columnists in Op-Ed, Business, New York/Region and Sports. In addition to reading the columns, TimesSelect subscribers can also engage with our columnists through video interviews and Web-only postings.

All of our news, features, editorials and analysis will remain free to readers of NYTimes.com, as will our interactive graphics, multimedia and popular video minutes.

Emphasis mine. This is not a "new" service -- if you read through the above marketing jargon, they are taking their most popular features, the features that actually have meat on their bones and shutting them behind a wall and charging admission for access. They are providing access (100 citations/month) to their archive which is cool but the key issue is that these people's writings will no longer be available to anyone:

Editorial

• David Brooks
  
• Maureen Dowd
  
• Thomas L. Friedman
  
• Bob Herbert
  
• Nicholas D. Kristof
  
• Paul Krugman
  
• Frank Rich
  
• John Tierney
  
  Business
  
• Gretchen Morgenson
  
• Joseph Nocera
  
• Floyd Norris
  
  New York/Region
  
• Peter Applebome
  
• Dan Barry
  
• Clyde Haberman
  
• Joyce Purnick
  
  Sports
  
• Dave Anderson
  
• Harvey Araton
  
• William C. Rhoden
  
• Selena Roberts
  
• George Vecsey
  
  The International Herald Tribune
  
• Roger Cohen
  
• John Vinocur

These are some good writers, some I don't bother to read and some middle of the road. Still, it is a shame that the Grey Lady has chosen to depart from the Newspaper of Record model and wander off into "whoring our assets" land. Sure, they will make money from Libraries and people who have extra cash lying about but they will not get mine and I know a lot of other people who will feel the same...