Katharine Q. Seelye reports in The New York Times of a potentially detrimental decision by... The Times.

Of the nation's 1,456 daily newspapers, only one national paper, The Wall Street Journal, which is published by Dow Jones & Company, and about 40 small dailies charge readers to use their Web sites. Other papers charge for either online access to portions of their content or offer online subscribers additional features.

The New York Times on the Web, which is owned by The New York Times Company, has been considering charging for years and is expected to make an announcement soon about its plans. In January, The Times's Web site had 1.4 million unique daily visitors. Its daily print circulation averaged 1,124,000 in 2004, down from its peak daily circulation of 1,176,000 in 1993.

Executives at The Times have suggested that the paper, which already charges for its crossword puzzle, news alerts and archives online, may start charging for other portions of its content, but would not follow the Journal model, which charges online readers $79 a year for everything.

It would be an extremely poor choice by the management of The Times if they indeed chose to move over to a paid subscription service. Although such a policy has worked for The Wall Street Journal, The Times' coverage of finance -- which draws many businessmen to subscribe on their company's penny -- does not compare to that of The Journal. As a result, online readership for The Times would decrease rapidly.

More importantly, a move to a paid service would begin to undercut blogs just at the point at which they are beginning to gain traction in the media. Although many blogs are producing exemplary original content, excepting content from established sources like The Times, The Washington Post, and The AP is a staple of many a good blog.

The folks at The Times could deal a blow to blogs with such a move, but they also risk alienating the generation of young readers who only get their news from the internet. The ball's in their court now, but one thing is clear: such a decision would hurt them as much -- or more -- than it would hurt internet users and blog reporters.