Goof Lets Times' Content Go Free

On Monday, The New York Times introduced the first paid section of its online version. In less than 24 hours, someone found a way around the TimesSelect paid subscription service.

Never Pay Retail was created on the same day that TimesSelect began. The blog links to other newspapers that syndicate the Times' Op-Ed content and are putting it online for free. To access the Op-Ed content and archives on the Times' site, readers have to pay $50 a year.

"If The New York Times doesn't want the eyeballs for their advertisers then their syndicates deserve them, so why not make it easier to find (the articles)?" said John Tabin, the creator of Never Pay Retail.

Never Pay Retail began to circulate around the blogosphere and was linked on one popular blog, Instapundit.com, Tuesday evening.

Tabin, an online columnist for The American Spectator, says that it takes him just a couple of minutes each day to scour Google News and find the newspapers that are reprinting the columns.

But The Times says that since TimesSelect went into effect, newspapers are allowed to use the paper's content in their print editions, but not online.

"We have an agreement with our syndicates that they can print the columns in their papers but they can't put them online unless it's a paid wall where they can direct (the readers) to us," said Diane McNulty, a spokeswoman for New York Times Digital.

Upon being alerted to the existence of Never Pay Retail, McNulty said that the Times has contacted the publishers of the online editions of those newspapers and that the posts were all honest mistakes or oversights.

One online publisher, Lee Rosen, general manager of SeattlePI.com, acknowledged that the reprinting of Nicholas D. Kristof's Sept. 21 column, among other Times Op-Ed content, was a mistake.

"They won't be there tomorrow," Rosen said.

The Times said that it's watching for sites that don't follow the syndication rules.

"We don't expect such infringements to spread or to last long and we will be keeping a close eye on it," McNulty said.

Despite these unauthorized reprints, the Times said that it is "pleased with the response" to TimesSelect. The Times declined to give figures on how many readers have signed up for the new service.