This problem has been just around the corner since NYT.com first offered academic discounts on premium TimesSelect last year but it didn’t become a real issue until the move to free for students and educators. Prodded by librarians irked at spending large chunks of money to gain access to the whole NYT database through services like Lexis-Nexis, the NYT is changing the offer: only students at colleges that subscribe to the databases will have access to the full archives, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. The change is being made “out of respect and compliance with these agreements that we already have in place,” Vivian Schiller, VP/GM,  NYtimes.com, told the Chrionicle.
One library director said database provider ProQuest was surprised by the paper’s decision to make the archives available to student subscribers for free. Barbara Fister of Gustavus Adolphus College was among those raising the issue online; she told the Chronicle she was torn between wanting all students to have access to the Times online and the fact that she just spent nearly $20,000 to provide archives access through ProQuest.
How this will affect the free sub program numbers remains to be seen—for instance, how many of the first 21,000 who signed up will be denied access—but it does take away some of the usefulness and a large chunk of cachet.  (via Romenesko.)
Related:
—TimesSelect Adds 21,000 Free Academic Subs In First Week; Times Reader Premium Plans Criticized
—TimesSelect To Be Free For College Students, Faculty; NYT Teams Up With MySpace For Kristof Contest