NYT opts out of discussion

As most of you probably already heard, the NY Times will put its op/ed pages behind a paid firewall, making such content available to exisiting print subscribers and those who shell out $50/year.

Salon has a great, balanced story on the move. My bit:

Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, the proprietor of the popular left-wing blog Daily Kos, said that come September, he'll stop linking to the Times Op-Ed pages. "I think this is the best way they can become irrelevant," said Moulitsas. "If my readers can't read it, why would I link to it? The key to blogging is that readers can look at the source material and make up their own minds." Moulitsas is a fan of Krugman's columns, but he said that he would not personally pay for the subscription service. "I don't think it's worth $50," he said. "There's way too much content out there for me to pay for any of it."

Sulzberger said he understood that bloggers wouldn't be happy with the move but added that he's not worried that Times columnists will have a hard time getting themselves heard when they're not available for free online. As a print newspaper with millions of readers, and with many influential readers, the Times is not in danger of becoming irrelevant, he said. Times columnists "are going to continue to set the agenda." Sulzberger said that he'd spoken to many of the columnists about the move and "overwhelmingly what I heard from the Op-Ed columnists was, 'Yeah, but we've got to do this.'"

Krugman and Rich, I hardly knew you. I liked you, but in this world of endless punditry, everyone is easily replaceable.