Free is good for the NYTimes

The New York Times' premium service, TimesSelect, seemed like it was destined for failure. When it launched in 2005, critics argued that people wouldn't pay a rich premium just to read Times columnists -- especially since most people expect everything on the web to be free. The numbers suggest critics were right: After the New York Times took down TimesSelect and freed content from its prized columnist roster (including Frank Rich and Maureen Dowd), traffic to the site shot up from 9.2 million visitors in September to 10.8 million in October, and up to 11.2 million in November, according to Compete.com.

There's a flip side to the story, though. Traffic to the Wall Street Journal web site, which still keeps most of its content hidden behind a subscription wall, doubled from 1.5 million to 3 million between June and November, according to Compete.com. Although that's still only a fraction of New York Times' traffic, you gotta wonder whether Rupert Murdoch needs to tear down the subscription wall if the site is growing steadily on its own.