This is smart. One of the big things keeping newspapers from charging for online content was the fear (and reality) of being cut out of the Web conversation. The New York Times will attempt to get around this by not charging readers lighting upon an article by clinking a blog link. So the paper will get revenue from readers who want the content first-hand, who want the Times as a whole. But it'll still get the bank-shot readers that are so important for online relevance.

Here is a NYT spokesperson, via Peter Kafka:

The pay model will be designed so readers that are referred from third party sites such as blogs will be able to access that content without hitting their limit, enabling NYTimes.com to continue being a part of the open web.