NY Times Announces Paywall Plan

If you want to read the New York Times online, it's going to cost you—but not for everything and not until next year. The Times confirmed its planned paywall today, but execs “could not yet answer fundamental questions about the plan.” The Times will allow users to read a certain number of stories for free each month, then charge a flat fee for further unlimited access. But the company isn’t yet sure how much it’ll charge, or how many free articles readers will get.

“This announcement allows us to begin the thought process that’s going to answer so many of the questions that we all care about,” Arthur Sulzberger Jr. declared. “We can’t get this halfway right…We have to get this really, really right.” The paper says it’s been debating the switch for almost a year, and will continue debating it for another year—the pay system won’t go into effect until January 2011. (More New York Times stories.)