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• New York Times to create paywall

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The Grey Lady of Journalism, the New York Times ( NYT ), will soon join a few of its major competitors - including the Wall Street Journal - in placing its online content behind a paywall. Previously, all of the content on NYTimes.com was freely available to visitors from across the web, though the site required free registration.

Previous experiments with a paid structure at the Times haven't gone well; its last effort, which saw the paper restrict certain parts of its site, including the extremely popular op-ed columnists, didn't go over well.

Under the new system, users can read 20 articles each month for free; beyond that, they'll have to pay $15 per month for unfettered access, including a mobile phone app. For $20, users can get access with an iPad app; a $35 fee will get users total access with apps for both phones and the iPad.

Subscribers to the full week's physical paper or just the weekend editions can read as much as they want for free.

The effect of even a small percentage of the Times' existing subscribers signing up could be staggering. Last month, nearly 32 million unique visitors went to the NYTimes.com site; if 1 percent of them purchase the minimum-level subscription, the Times will rake in over $57 million in revenue. Of course, the paywall will also cut some degree of organic traffic and may affect advertising sales, though some advertisers may pay to target the presumably wealthier readers who remain.

Several papers - including the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal - have survived with a paywall system because their target market is generally affluent and the content they offer is compelling enough to justify a subscription.

The Times is betting it can pull of the same trick.

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