New York Times goes to the market

With readership declining, the New York Times has hit upon a strange marketing approach: Start charging online readers to access previously free articles. Beginning in September, readers will need to pay $50 per year to sign onto "the work of Op-Ed columnists and some of the best known voices from the news side of The Times and The International Herald Tribune (IHT)." Thus a newspaper that once sought maximum coverage for its op-ed columnists chooses a marketing strategy likely to reduce their exposure. The Blogosphere (all talk, all the time, as close as a click and almost always free) just got more influential.