New York Times To Bring Back Subscription Model?

Imagine our surprise when trying to access the NY Times today brought up the following page which we got a screen grab of……

The New York Times is one of the world’s biggest newspapers and in 2007 they dropped their subscription model as at the time it wasn’t seen as the smartest way for newspapers to do business as having large chunks of their content behind closed walls was seen as a foolish thing to do. At the time they made the case that Ad revenue would exceed the $10 million a year they were bringing in through subscription. That was of course before the economic downturn and a slashing of Ad revenues that has seen newspapers on their knees recently with many closing down and pundits predicting the end of the print business as a entity.

So why would the above page pop up on the NY Times today? We took this screen grab today and it may just be a coincidence but could this really be the NY Times testing out their subscription model and bringing it back in (although according to their CEO it does look like they are planning something anyway). Newspapers are going to have to do something very drastic to stay alive and make money in the future but is this the best way and should other newspapers around the world adopt the same model and introduce/re-introduce their subscription models? Interesting times for print media.