The New York Times will stop charging for access to parts of its Web site, effective at midnight tonight

The move comes two years to the day after The Times began the subscription program, TimesSelect, which has charged $49.95 a year, or $7.95 a month, for online access to the work of its columnists and to the newspaper’s archives. TimesSelect has been free to print subscribers to The Times and to some students and educators.

In addition to opening the entire site to all readers, The Times will also make available its archives from 1987 to the present without charge, as well as those from 1851 to 1922, which are in the public domain. There will be charges for some material from the period 1923 to 1986, and some will be free.

"TimesSelect represented the last gasp of the circulation mentality of news media," says Jarvis, "the belief that surely consumers would continue to pay for content even as the internet commodified news and -- more important -- even as the internet revealed that the real value in media is not owning and controlling content or distribution but enabling conversation."

I think real value is in weaving yourself into the Web. "Conversation" is blogger's shorthand for that larger idea.