Times charges for news alerts: The New York Times will start charging online readers who use its service for receiving e-mail alerts on any news topic of their choosing.
In an e-mail to readers, the Times said News Tracker, which notifies readers of articles containing keywords they choose, will become a subscription service June 13 because of the time and resources needed to run it. A Times spokeswoman said about 500,000 readers get News Tracker, which was introduced in March 2002.
With the subscription service, readers will be able to create 10 separate topics, up from the current three. A topic can involve multiple keywords -- for example, producing all articles containing the words "medicine" and "health."
The News Tracker subscription will also let readers receive e-mail alerts on breaking news. Mohan said a free version of the breaking news service ended several months ago because of technical delays resulting from having more than 1 million users.
The service initially will cost $20 a year, though the price will go up to $30 at an undetermined date. The Times already charges for accessing crossword puzzles and archives containing stories more than seven days old. The main portions of the site will still be free. http://wired.com/news/business/0,1367,59026,00.html
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