RWW: “Notably, the Times’ model intends to ‘provide the necessary flexibility to keep an appropriate ratio between free and paid content and stay connected to a search-driven Web,’ according to the release. Acknowledging the nature of the Web while trying to retain a profit, and hopefully keep paying your hard-working journalists, sounds like a good method to us. – The move is something we’ve all seen coming, as more and more newspapers have shut down in recent years. By mid-2009, more than 100 newspapers had been shuttered with a number stopping the presses and going online only in an attempt to remain in production.”

Carr/NYT: “It was clear when consumer revenues surpassed advertising revenues last year that The New York Times was going to come up with some kind of pay model. The costs of producing original branded content to a very high standard is no longer supported mainly by advertising, in part because there is an endless amount of advertising on the Web and the price has been commoditized. So the newspaper is deciding that while some advertisers may treat its work as a commodity, some consumers won’t feel the same way. Every plan that could be conceived of heads into a large headwind, built up over years, that consumers do not expect to pay for content no matter where it comes from. We will have to wait a year to find out how visitors behave when they hit the wall.”

TC: “Evidently, it’s hard not to see this announcement in light of Apple’s upcoming event, where the company is set to unveil its new tablet computer and a slew of content partnerships with major publishers, likely including the New York Times.”