Drudge: The internet is losing it's innocence

[cynatnite]

The New York Times, which had been operating an all-free Web site, nytimes.com, will begin charging a fee for access to its major columnists under a new program called Times Select.

...

Cybergossip Matt Drudge is threatening to boot the Times columnists.

"I will yank the Times scribes if I can't find other outlets that are planning to carry them," threatened Drudge. "The Internet is losing its innocence."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2005/09/14/drudge-i-will-yank-the-n_n_7330.html

:rofl:

[Arkana]

1. And so has ol'Drudgey--but if he said how,

Repubes wouldn't like him anymore!

Seriously, what does he think? That his threat will stop the NYT?

[cynatnite]

4. I'm renaming him 'Tight-Wad Drudge'

:rofl:

This just cracks me up. The butt muncher doesn't want to pay. I bet he downloads illegal mp3's from kazaa.

[marbuc]

2. well that just sux. eom

[sweetheart]

3. rather, the internet is becoming more honest

And the bills gotta be paid, not by dot-com vapour, but hard earnings.

[matt819]

9. Point taken

I'm able to read the NYT for free daily (it's my home page), and on top of that I use the ad block extension from Firefox. So I'm getting a freebie. It's been that way for damn near a decade, but you're right. It costs money, and ad revenue goes only so far. While the internet may or may not be losing its innocence, it is offering far more services. And we're paying for these services one way or another. The products sold cost that much more to cover website expenses. Various fees (such as e-bay listings) go up to cover the increased costs. You may love or hate Google for any number of reasons, but they offer one heck of a range of services, and I for one am grateful that they have managed to make a profit on the commercial services, and not have to hit the consumer up for subscriptions.

So, sure, I'm not happy that the NYT is going to charge for access (and I'm really paying only for Krugman, Herbert, and Rich), but it's really only pennies a day in the long run.

As for Sludge, you really do have to ask yourself where his funding comes from. He who lives in glass houses should know better than to throw stones. But then he's a rightwinger and a fraud, so I guess he doesn't.

[mattclearing]

5. Y'all might think this is funny, but if you saw the numbers Drudge refers

to the NY Times columnists, like the Times editors and advertisers likely do, you'd know this is bad news for them.

As far as I'm concerned, however, no one needs to know what bullshit is on Thomas Friedman's mind anyway. :D

[Teaser]

6. Drudge is a stopped clock...

I assume that he must be right about something at least twice a day.

I guess this is one of those things.

[JAbuchan08]

7. Tell that to the porn subscribers

when exactly was the internet innocent?

[Zynx]

8. And Drudge never lost his virginity.

[matt819]

10. Who's picking up his tab? (nt)

[sendero]

11. What I'd like to say about Drudge..

.... would just get deleted. So I won't :evilgrin: