Perhaps one of the most prestigious and world renowned media outlets in the word, the New York Times is all set for its transition into a paid online new entity, and the web service has reportedly adopted the metered system, where the readers will be given access to a fixed number of free articles, after which they will be asked to subscribe to the service for access to the New York Times. The announcement of the paid system is expected shortly from Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the chairman of the New York Times.

As per sources close to the matter, the announcement of the paid services could happen this very month and as the so far mythical Applet Tablet PC is believed to have a launch date of 27th January, 2010, the NYT could very will be planning to enter into a content partnership with Apple and simultaneously announce the paid services as well. However, many people familiar with the topic have speculated, that even after the announcement, it would be a while, before the content is actually suppressed for free users on the New York Times website.

As of now, the New York Times is one of the biggest and the most followed of all news outlets on the internet, with near about 20 million unique readers. This astounding reader base prompted the management to put the website into the paid category, because they presumed that, the users will be more than willing to pay a small fee for the loads of content and information, that they would be able to benefit from. Even though the new service is going the dollar avenue, yet the New York Times has so far declined to get into any partnership with other entities, especially with News Corp. that has now running a crusade to get major publications on board, in an effort to attain a leverage over Google and its terms and conditions.

Via NY Mag