New York Times Puts New Blog Behind TimesSelect Wall

Posted on January 25, 2006

There are blogs going up behind the New York Times' new pay wall. Gawker reports on the New York Times' launch of a blog called The Opinionator. The blog is written by Chris Suellentrop who told his personal blog readers about the The Opinionator.

The legions of loyal Suellentrop.com readers are the last to know: The New York Times has a new blog, "The Opinionator," written by yours truly. It's on Times Select, so if you've been thinking, "Hey, those New York Times columnists are worth only $48.50 a year," I'm here to provide the extra $1.45 in annual value to meet your demand curve. Though Mickey Kaus kindly writes, "Suellentrop's almost worth $49.95 by himself!"

Unfortunately, as Suellentrop told his fans, the blog is locked behind the Times' fee-based TimesSelect service. Only subscribers can see the blog. There are headlines and a few sentences available on the Opinionater's RSS Feed. Corporations often have internal blogs that they don't let the public see but trying to charge for a blog sounds like a new strategy.