New York Times Online To Decide Whether to Charge

I post this mainly for the benefit of the New York Times itself.

As a blogger, it is imperative that I link to sources that my readers can reasonably be expected to access. If the Times online becomes a pay service, two things are likely to happen:

1. I will become a subscriber
2. When I find interesting things that I want to write up, I will google for alternate, free sources and link to those instead.

So, to the Gray Lady, I encourage a long hard look at the economics at play. I, and countless other of the estimated 7.7 million bloggers out there, will not link to a pay-for-content New York Times Online anymore.

There is one solution: create a special category of subscriptions for bloggers and others who frequently reference Times material online. I would pay a little more for my subscription, maybe $10 or $15 a year more, and the articles that I read would have either a unique address based on my subscription category or a link to a publicly accessible hyperlink for trackbacking. This would allow me to write up pieces, reference a Times story, and the link I supply would be publicly accessible to my readers.

Without a system along these lines, it's going to be the Washington Post all the way for me.