Content previously available through TimesSelect, including online access to news and opinion columnists, archives and personalisation tools, will be made available at no cost beginning Wednesday, NYTimes.com has announced.

The TimesSelect subscription revenue model will be replaced by an advertising-based model, with American Express signing on to be the first sponsor of the newly opened areas once only accessible by subscribers to TimesSelected, according to a New York Times Company statement.

As online users increasingly rely on search in order to navigate the Internet, and NYTimes.com “expects to see a substantially increased number of unique users referred to and accessing the site” once TimesSelect is taken down, according to the statement.

Launched in September 2005, TimesSelect now has about 787,400 active subscribers. Of those, 471,200 received the service for free, as a benefit of home-delivery subscriptions. Another 227,000 paid for online access, and 89,200 received it for free on college campuses through TimesSelect University.

“The system defied the trend in the industry, which is to opt for as big an audience as possible and support that with advertising. I guess that strategy has been proven,” writes Jemima Kiss, media journalist for the Guardian.

Removing the pay wall means NYTimes.com could become the number one newspaper Web site in the United States, and advertisers on the site will be able to reach “an unprecedented number” of readers, Denise Warren, senior vice president and chief advertising officer of The New York Times Media Group, said in the statement.

“TimesSelect brought new commentary and voices to the site, as well as an influx of subscription revenue,” Vivian Schiller, senior vice president and general manager of NYTimes.com, said in the statement. “But the increasing dominance of search and other forms of referral have changed the equation. Allowing unfettered, free access to our opinion content and recent archives should enable us to drive readership and advertising.”

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