A Letter to Readers About TimesSelect

Dear NYTimes.com Readers:

Effective Sept. 19, we are ending TimesSelect. All of our online readers will now be able to read Times columnists, access our archives back to 1987 and enjoy many other TimesSelect features that have been added over the last two years – free.

If you are a paying TimesSelect subscriber, you will receive a prorated refund. For more information, please go to our TimesSelect FAQ.

Why the change?

Since we launched TimesSelect in 2005, the online landscape has altered significantly. Readers increasingly find news through search, as well as through social networks, blogs and other online sources. In light of this shift, we believe offering unfettered access to New York Times reporting and analysis best serves the interest of our readers, our brand and the long-term vitality of our journalism. We encourage everyone to read our news and opinion – as well as share it, link to it and comment on it.

We welcome all online readers to enjoy the popular and powerful voices that have defined Times commentary – Maureen Dowd, Thomas L. Friedman, Frank Rich, Gail Collins, Paul Krugman, David Brooks, Bob Herbert, Nicholas D. Kristof and Roger Cohen. And we invite them to become acquainted with our exclusive online journalism – columns by Stanley Fish, Maira Kalman, Dick Cavett and Judith Warner; the Opinionator blog; and guest forums by scientists, musicians and soldiers on the frontlines in Iraq. All this will now reach a broader audience in the United States and around the world.

This month we mark the 156th anniversary of the first issue of The New York Times. Our long, distinguished history is rooted in a commitment to innovation, experimentation and constant change. All three themes were plainly evident in the skillful execution of TimesSelect; they will be on full display as NYTimes.com becomes entirely open.

Sincerely,

Vivian Schiller
Senior Vice President & General Manager
NYTimes.com


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COMMENT:

WE WON!

So…Don’t Mourn…Organize! Educate! Agitate!

Now on to better things…

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Shameless Self-Promotion:

Now that the NYT has returned to its senses eschewing elitism for providing the Great Unwashed with the intelligence of the day -- or lack thereof--my mission of “tearing down the firewall” is done.

I will continue posting news articles, columns, reviews, graphics and other items of interest, including my own continuing original commentary on the doings of the oft self-important human animal populating this speck of dust we call Terra (as in “Terra-ists”) …

The Scratchpad (which hopefully time permitting will be a regular or at least a semi-regular feature ) will be revised and added to during the course of the day. (At least that's the plan.) So visit often. If you dare…!

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* Note: And you might want to take just a few moments to convey your appreciation to the greatest newspaper on the face of the planet: Bourgeois Establishment Liberal but still Ye Olde Venerable Newspaper of Record.

E-mail the NYT Editorial page/Op-ed editors at: letters@nytimes.com .

To reach Clark Hoyt, the Public Editor, e-mail at: public@nytimes.com .

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I wrote:

Dear Gray Lady:

Thx for liberating your columnists.

WE LOVE YOU!

-- The Public

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