Say au revoir to Thomas L. Friedman, Paul Krugman, and David Brooks starting next Monday. Or at least be prepared to fork over some serious dollars to be able to procrastinate at work reading Maureen Dowd's latest screed.

The New York Times is getting ready to unveil "TimesSelect"--its new way to get you to pay for material you're used to getting for free.

"Subscribers to TimesSelect will have exclusive online access to many of our most influential columnists in Op-Ed, Business, New York/Region and Sports. In addition to reading the columns, TimesSelect subscribers can also engage with our columnists through video interviews and Web-only postings," NYT.com's editor Leonard M. Apcar writes in a homepage note today.

While news, features, editorials, and news analysis pieces will remain free, the archives will also be opened to TimesSelect readers, who'll pay $49.95 annually for the privilege.

Any bets on whether this experiment will succeed--and, if not, how long it'll last?