The New York Times' smart decision to stop charging for their "Times Select" content has drawn applause from all corners of the web - and noone is happier than me, now that Thomas Friedman is back.

The Times' move is being read as the death-knell of paid content online.  The old AOL-style "walled garden" approach is officially over, and free, ad-supported content is hot, baby!  Even the Wall Street Journal's new management is reported to be leaning towards doing away with subscription fees in the hopes that opening up their content will bring hordes of new online readers and drive ad revenues.

In the classified space, the opposite is true.

TheLadders.com is moving from free job postings to subscription fees.  HotOrNot just reversed a highly public experiment in which they switched from paid personals to free.  Even hippy-dippy Craig's List is steadily abandoning free classifieds in their largest markets, and recently started charging a modest fee in even more cities.

In our industry, modest fees are a form of quality control.  They weed out the spammers and scammers, and make people think twice before paying to post an inappropriate or off-target ad.

Of course, the revenue is a nice plus too.