The Failure of TimesSelect

David S. Hirschman reminds us of how unpopular TimesSelect really is:

Last month, a release from the Times announced that there were 482,000 subscribers to the service. Unfortunately for the paper, 62% of that number got it for free as subscribers to the print edition. Boston Globe business columnist Brett Arends did the math: only about 183,000 users (out of 11.9 million monthly visitors) had actually plunked down the $50 annual fee to read the Times Op-Ed columnists and gain access to the other features -- essentially one reader in 65.

That's pretty amazing.The New York Times Op-Ed page doesn't seem to even interest the overwhelming majority of Times readers.Dowd and the crowd don't seem to be "essential" reading for what would appear to be the Times target audience.