So much for that. Two years after its launch, the New York Times is shuttering the TimesSelect pay-for section of its website, effective about a half-hour from now at midnight tomorrow.

I guess my endorsement of the business model didn’t hold up against all the lost traffic and ad revenue that comes from maintaining a content firewall.

The Times is, of course, giving the long-rumored move a cheerful spin, blaming only the dim prospects of further growth instead of overall stagnation of the service. Obviously, the Grey Lady is sold on the ramping-up of online advertising, seeing it as a bigger money-maker than subscriptions. That points to a more robust ad market today, because one of the main justifications back in 2005 for starting TimesSelect was the inability to make real money with Web advertising. It’s a dramatic turnaround, strategically.