The NY Times Puts Up a Pay Fence

fenceYesterday The New York Times Business Section published an excellent article about the ever expanding internet: In a New Web World, No Application Is an Island. It may seem very geeky, but it is a  good overview and one that I recommend. Desktops, laptops, smart-phones and tablets are all evolving. Do you disagree that we are becoming digitally dependent? (insert video of 4 year old granddaughter working the iPad here)

Today, March 28th, The New York Times will start charging for on-line access. In The Newsonomics of The New York Times’ Pay Fence, Harvard’s Nieman Foundation outlines and evaluates this pay system. I have subscribed to the print version for some thirty years, so it will not affect my access as the print subscription includes it all…for now. Every morning I go to my apartment door thinking what a privilege it is to find the Times on my doorstep. Now with the iPad, sometimes I take an early peek if I wake up before the usual 6 AM arrival. Unfortunately, the New York Times iPad app is a frustrating mystery to me (see post.) I hope a major app update is coming with the new pay model.

It seems there are many ways to access the Times. http://www.nytimes.com is the most obvious. But there is also the NY Times Reader. And in the biz article published yesterday, I learned about the NY Times HTML5 reader called Skimmer.  Take a look. The Skimmer really has my interest. There is a lot to be sorted out in the new publishing world. Think frontier, where Steve Jobs is the cattle baron and we are the locals.

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