Michael B. Duff

Eventually, even the New York Times gets it right.

They haven't thrown the switch yet, but NYT is about to take their opinion columns from behind the pay firewall and make Dowd, Krugman and company available for free again.

They're also planning to open up their archives back through 1980 so the entire history of the paper can be accessed from Google or Yahoo.

The powers that be finally realized they can make more money off advertisers than they can from subscribers, and that Google searches bring in more traffic than direct visitors. A blinding insight that's been obvious to Internet users since 1996.

We still have a long way to go when it comes to improving Lubbock Online, but I'm proud to work for a paper with open archives and no registration.

This change is particularly welcome in the case of the New York Times, because their archives really do capture important moments in American history. I'm a huge Mark Twain fan, so on a whim, I put “mark twain oxford” into the Times search box and came up with this priceless story from 1907:

“At this point the author fished a dilapidated cigar from his pocket and finding it of no use threw it overboard, declaring that he would not smoke again. A moment later he begged a cigar from a friend.”

And while you're tromping through history, don't miss this one.