The New York Times is dropping its paid TimesSelect premium online section, and opening past archives to all readers, with support from ads, reports The New York Times itself.

The Times maintains that the TimesSelect program, which charged an annual or monthly subscription fee for access, was successful, generating about US$ 10 million a year in revenue since its launch in 2005. But seeing that search engines were now powering a good number of site visits, and seeing more revenue potential from selling ads on premium and archived pages, the Times decided to throw open the gates.

Analysts say the only real surprise is that it took this long for the NYT to make the switch. A number of readers and columnists were upset that the work of TimesSelect writers would be unavailable to all readers.

One analyst observes that the Times' skill in targeting online ads to readers should make the move a solid one.

In addition to making available previously subscription-only pages, bloggers will also be able to link to content, which will help drive pageviews to the Times' site.

The New York Post first reported the Times' intention to desert the subscription model in early August.