TimesSelect

Some statistics on the NY Times TimesSelect feature, by which readers who pay $50/yr can access certain op-ed and other columns not offered for free on nytimes.com:

• there were 482,000 subscribers to the service.
  
• 62% of that number got it for free as subscribers to the print edition.
  
• that means only about 183,000 users (out of 11.9 million monthly visitors) had actually plunked down the $50 annual fee to read the Times Op-Ed columnists and gain access to the other features -- essentially one reader in 65.
• income for the NY Times: $9.2M/yr

At the Webby awards the other night, Thomas Friedman, said he "hated" TimesSelect, and added:

"It pains me enormously, because it's cut me off from a lot of people, especially because I have a lot of people who read me overseas, in India and what not," he said, acknowledging in the next breath that his employer still needed to make money in order to fund the frequent trips he takes around the now-flat world to write his column.

"We're not in the business of free," he said.