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Why pay for information in a printed newspaper when it is accessible right now, online and free of charge? The decline in newspaper sales worldwide has best been countered by The New York Times. The internet provides information readily and at no cost with newspapers unable to compete with free information online.

The New York Times is the world's most popular online newspaper with some 20 million unique readers visiting the site in November 2008. This number of unique readers may be due to www.nyt.com discontinuing its TimeSelect subscription services.

TimeSelect initiated its service in 2005 a decade after the paper first went online. TimeSelect gave subscribers access to sections of the newspaper unavailable to the general public such as the opinions of columnists Maureen O'Dowd and Charles Krugman. The New York Times also opened its news archives to the public from 1987 as well as opening archives from 1851 to 1922. The subscription experiment came to an end because there was more money to be made from advertising revenue than from the $50 annual subscriber fee.

The New York Times was making c$30,000 daily from subscribers but with the actual printed paper costing $1, the subscription revenue represented only a 2.5% rise in daily circulation. This surprisingly low figure, compared to the rise in online advertising revenue projected by the paper made the crucial decision to provide free content so much easier for the Gray Lady.

Does The New York Times decision to accept online advertising mean that accepting corporate advertising can only lead to a distillation of integrity and a deference to commercial realities and having to censor itself for the sake of money? Will the new revenue allow The New York Times to improve the quality of journalism and articles? The commercial implications of demanding advesrtisers requiring relevant and favourable copy to accompany their advertising is a pressing problem.

The reader is quite capable of accessing articles from the archives as well as today's news. At some time in the future the reader could quite feasibly read changing news stories and headlines as Tom Cruise was able to do on a subway train in the film Minority Report. This exciting yet desirable development was barely available for this 2006 film. The WiFi facilities on public transport and in public places require continuing updates in order to work.

Fortunately, print and online concerns are similar and a situation whereby news is available by a variety of means is desirable for all concerned.

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