Times, Free at Last (Again)

TimesSelect, the grasping boneheaded grabasstic NYTimes ploy to charge for parts of their website, has died a deserved death. The bone of the boneheadocity was the concept that people would find the Times columnists and archives so valuable, that they would pay a premium to read their golden words. Except, uh, they may be good but not nearly as good as the FREE stuff we get online.

The online world is free and evolving (for now) and in the two years since NYT locked themselves behind a Dickensian wall of greed, Wikipedia and Youtube exploded and took control of news and information. Now, two years later, the Times needed to drop their scrooging because they were being left way behind.

As proof for my analysis, I just noticed on the online 'front page' of the Times that they are introducing a blog for my man, Paul Krugman. Considering that I get most of my online news and analysis from the incredible blogs on the Atlantic, Harpers, and from independents like TPM and Michael Totten, I'm glad the Times is starting off right.