Silicon Insider: Online Media Fees

Jan. 13, 2005 -- -- As the Rathergate debacle begins to fade, the CBS production team fired, Rather allowed to quietly slip into retirement, and CBS' once-sterling reputation thrashed for years to come, up steps The New York Times to be instructed on the new Digital Zeitgeist.

As it happens, I have a little history with the Gray Lady. Twenty years ago, when I first started freelancing, I worked as a stringer for the business section of the Times, and managed to do enough big stories to earn a byline. I had a chance to turn that gig into a full-time job -- until I found out that the Times expected me to spend five years in New York before going back out into the field. Moving a Silicon Valley guy back to New York to cover Silicon Valley struck me as nuts, so I passed.

Then, five years later, I found myself writing for the Times again, this time as a Sunday business "lifestyle" columnist. It was a monthly deal, so not much of a stretch, but I still found it disturbing. On deadline day, my phone would ring and I'd hear a woman's voice say, without even a hello, "Where is it?"

"It's on its way," I'd reply.

On the other end, the phone would click dead.

This went on for a year. Then one day, the phone rang. It was the same editor, only now she said, "Mike! How are you?" She then proceeded to launch into a long and friendly conversation -- leaving me more confused by the second. Was this the same woman who didn't even say hello?

Then she said, "The reason I'm calling is to tell you that I'm leaving the Times ..." Suddenly, it all became clear. I remember thinking: What kind of place would cause that kind of personality change in a person? Just how big is the reality distortion zone back there on 43rd Street?

I don't know the answer, and perhaps it was a unique case, but every time I read the Times I think of that phone call.

I thought about it during the Jayson Blair scandal. During the last presidential campaign. And I thought about it again a couple days ago as I read about an upcoming Business Week story (as described by Reuters) that claims the Times is having an internal debate about whether to start charging subscription fees for its currently free online version.