NEW YORK, Nov 3 (Reuters) - The New York Times Co. (NYT.N: Quote, Profile , Research) said on Friday it will offer free access to its Times Select online opinion section through a sponsorship deal with Royal Philips Electronics (PHG.AS: Quote, Profile , Research) as it aims to get more people to subscribe to the $49.95-per-year service.
Philips will sponsor the free access starting on Monday, Nov. 6, and run it through Nov. 12 as part of a national marketing campaign.
Times Select features commentary by columnists such as David Brooks, Maureen Dowd and Frank Rich, and is part of the paper's attempt to develop ways to make money from its Web site through subscription services as an alternative to advertising sales.
Times Select has 551,000 subscribers, according to spokeswoman Diane McNulty. About 35 percent of them pay for it directly, while 65 percent get it as part of their regular subscription to the print edition of the newspaper.
That is in line with the company's expectations, McNulty said.
"It's not that we feel that we haven't signed up enough," she added. "We feel that if people sample it, they'll want to sign up."
Few major U.S. daily newspapers charge for access to their Web sites. The Wall Street Journal, owned by Dow Jones & Co. Inc. (DJ.N: Quote, Profile , Research), is a major exception, and some small-town dailies block access to nonpaying visitors.
This is the first time the paper has opened Times Select to readers through an advertising sponsorship, McNulty said.
The company is trying to draw more readers to its Web site as circulation stalls at the newspaper. The paper's daily circulation dropped 3.5 percent in the six months ended Sept. 30, 2006, compared with the same period last year.
Times Select will offer special features during the week, including reader question-and-answer sessions with columnists such as Thomas Friedman and Harvey Araton.
It also will offer analysis of next week's congressional elections and access to stories from the Times story archive, including the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter during the U.S. Civil War and the U.S. Supreme Court school desegregation ruling of 1956.
