This is the news blurb we’re running in the November/December 2007 issue of ONLINE:

"The New York Times announced it would cease its Times Select product and open up 23 of its news and opinion columnists and some of its archives for free, rather than fee-based, access. Launched in 2005, Times Select garnered $10 million per year in revenue from 227,000 paying subscribers. Researchers will not be charged for older stories from the newspaper published between 1851 and 1923 or for newer stories between 1986 to the present. Articles published between 1923 and 1986 will be $2.95 for one article or $15.95 for 10 articles viewed within 30 days. The discontinuation of Times Select, according to Vivian Schiller, SVP & General Manager, reflects changes in how people find news. Increasingly, it is from search engines, social networks, blogs, and other online sources."

How will librarians handle this? Will they be tempted to drop their subscription to an aggregator like LexisNexis (or be forced to do so by management)? At what point does the convenience of aggregation outweigh its costs? How many free web sites can a librarian check before he/she is spending so much time that it equals or exceeds the subscription costs to a premium content site? Just another conundrum for our times.