The very proud New York Times has long fought against the idea of giving away their content for free. They assumed that no matter what consumers would pay for the privilege to read newswire stories they could pretty much read elsewhere. As of midnight tonight the New York Times will be giving content away for free.

I have always thought that the very notion that people would pay for content in this manner as ludicrous. For a few reasons I have thought this, and this transition to free content from the Times does not shock me in the slightest. Still, the fact that such a stalwart of old media has made this shift marks a turning point I’m sure.

That being said, I am kinda shocked that they have opened part of their archive:

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.

The newspaper said the TimesSelect project had met expectations, drawing 227,000 paying subscribers — out of 787,000 over all — and generating about $10 million a year in revenue.

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