‘New York Times’ Paywall Will Add Costs to Some College Offerings

The New York Times says its new paywall will affect some of its educational offerings, but not all.

The paper’s new digital-subscription plan, announced today, will require online readers who access more than 20 articles a month to pay at least $15 every four weeks to access more material. Print subscribers will get free online access under the plan, which will take effect March 28 in the United States.

Campuses that participate in the college-readership program, through which colleges purchase bulk quantities of the paper to distribute to students free of charge, will get discounted access to the Times Web site, says Eileen M. Murphy, the company’s vice president for corporate communications. There’s no information yet on how big that discount will be, she says.

Teachers and professors who use Epsilen, a learning-management system partially owned by the Times that provides access to the paper’s archives, will still have unlimited access to that content for their classes, says Felice Nudelman, executive director of education at the Times. “It will continue exactly as it happens today,” she says.

The Epsilen system powers the Knowledge Network, which offers continuing education and college-level online classes that draw on the paper’s content and, in many cases, are taught by reporters. Those classes will not be affected either.

Finally, a note posted on the Learning Network, a Times blog that provides content for precollege students and teachers, says that all material referenced and linked to from the blog or its Twitter and Facebook pages will remain free as well.