The New York Times said today they plan to move to a "metered" pay model, where heavy users of the site can be expected to be charged for access depending on the number of stories they click on.

The newspaper was careful to publicize the cautious deliberations they went through in making their announcement, which is expected to take effect in January 2011.

Indeed, it'll be a closely watched effort. I have to guess that many, many publishers who've contemplated moving their content behind a paywall may now wait to do so until they see how well the NYTimes does with it.

News publishers are a notoriously conservative bunch who look to the NY Times and the Wall Street Journal as trend-setters, to a certain extent.

Overall, though, I like the Times' idea so far. I think part of the success will depend on how many articles they choose to make freely available to casual users of their site and if they can propose a reasonable price structure for those who may be willing to pay a little for their content.