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Times Will Eliminate Pay Access to TimesSelect

Op-ed columnists to burst out from behind firewall

By Dustin Lushing, Newser Staff

Posted Aug 7, 2007 11:58 AM CDT

(Newser) – The New York Times will shut down TimesSelect, the pay section of its website that keeps columnists such as Maureen Dowd and Frank Rich beyond the reach of the great unwashed. The fate of the $7.95-a-month subscription service sparked hot debate among publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and other Times execs, reports the New York Post.

In 2005, as other news outlets were abandoning subscriptions, the Times began charging for access to some op-eds as well as archival material and other Web-based features. Readers who currently have their noses pressed up against the TimesSelect firewall will have the run of the site as soon as software issues are resolved.

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Times Will Eliminate Pay Access to TimesSelect