September 17, 2005

No Big Loss

Starting Monday you'll have to pay to read NY Times' columnists.

*Crickets chirping*

Yeah, there will be a big hole in my daily reading. I can feel the middlebrow intellectual hole already forming. What will I do without Paul Krugman's and Frank Rich's screeds on my computer screen? How will I cope with not having Thomas Friedman's occasionally insightful essays filled with his too-cute-by-half pop culture references? (This is the man who thinks Google "is a little bit like God.") We will lose David Brooks and John Tierney. Bummer. And I'm serious about that.

When the Times' columnists go behind the pay firewall it's influence diminishes. The blogosphere won't care what Krugman is yapping about because, in essence, he will no longer exist. Friedman, Krugman, and the rest might not care. They may only want the powerful and influential reading their words. If I were them I'd be ticked at the Times. As a writer readers mean influence. Limiting one's audience limits the ability of one's ideas to spread. It limits the conversation. Both readers and writers suffer because of that.

Andrew Sullivan informs us that the Washington Post is taking a different route and linking up with independent webloggers. They see the future while the Times rebels. Guess who will win?

"Times to Charge for Access to Columnists" [via Instapundit]