New York Times Tears Down Its Subscription Wall
Today, the New York Times offers its entire online contents for free, including columnists such as Thomas Friedman previously available via a Times Select subscription. The decision is an acknowledgment by management that the Times stands to earn more money through advertising sales from increased traffic on its website than it did by asking readers to pay a fee for its premium content.
"The big thing that has happened really is that ... search has been far and away more than anyone imagined such a massive driver of traffic," said Vivian Schiller, a senior vice-president at NYTimes.com.
The NYTimes also has its archives available back to 1987. Details here.
They also do a good job of implementing RSS for feeds for their home page, different sections, and individual columnists.
