The New York Times is Charging You to Read Their Articles Online

Looks like the media men and women over at the New York Times are no longer in the business of giving you the goods for free. Internet proliferation has fostered a whole new group of readers who don't need little Jimmy to toss your paper on the yard and get it all wet when the sprinklers kick in. And anyways, why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free, right? Well, that milk ain't free no more, kiddies. The venerable paper just sent out an email explaining that starting sometime soon (they're testing this out in Canada first -- weird) you'll only get a limited amount of free stories a month -- then you're gonna have to click the PAY UP button. Seeing as we read the Theater and Styles section top to bottom, this means we're going to have to start coughing up the dough to read how much Cathy Horyn loved Jil Sander and hated Givenchy (what? she always does) and some esoteric explanation as to why Ben Brantley gagged at the latest celebrity-starring mess treading the boards. But this also means that the web is starting to be seen as a legitimate source of actual news (not the US Weekly kind) and journalists and business owners are demanding it be respected at so. Good for them! Listen, we spend our whole day blogging it up, and if this means that web writers are going to start making more money then we say HALLELUJAH