Innovation in College Media

Hurrah! The New York Times is dropping the paid-subscription TimesSelect wall, and even opening up free access to archives in the process.

The New York Times will stop charging for access to parts of its Web site, effective at midnight tonight.

The move comes two years to the day after The Times began the subscription program, TimesSelect, which has charged $49.95 a year, or $7.95 a month, for online access to the work of its columnists and to the newspaper’s archives. TimesSelect has been free to print subscribers to The Times and to some students and educators.

In addition to opening the entire site to all readers, The Times will also make available its archives from 1987 to the present without charge, as well as those from 1851 to 1922, which are in the public domain. There will be charges for some material from the period 1923 to 1986, and some will be free.

Rumor has it that Rupert Murdoch is going to do away with the subscription model at the Wall Street Journal as well.