The New York Times, figuring that NYTimes.com wasn’t annoying readers enough, has launched a new interactive ad format. The system, called “Unveil,” is just that: When you drag your mouse across an ad, it changes to reveal a different image underneath. Fun!

The first advertiser taking advantage of Unveil is Sun Products. For its Wisk Deep Clean, each time you go over the ad with your cursor, an animated black light shows stains on a shirt that weren’t there before.

Denise Warren, NYTimes.com’s general manager, called Unveil an innovative way to “connect our advertisers with our highly engaged readers.” You’ll most likely describe Unveil as “Irritating distractions, dammit.”

After falling to an abysmal 7th place in December, NYTimes.com climbed back to spots last month in the Nielsen ratings of current events websites. The site has still seen a 5.2 percent decrease in total unique visitors from the same month last year, which surprisingly follows the trend of the top 5 most popular sites, all which saw declines in readership. CNN Digital Networks — which made it to the #1 slot for January after overtaking Yahoo News — actually saw a bigger year-to-year decrease than it’s competitor: 2.5 compared it 1.2 percent. And here we thought everyone was reading news on the Internet these days.

Below a list of the Top 10 most popular sites, and their unique visitors over a year-to-year comparison.

Read More: In January, NYTimes.com Makes it Back to Top 5 — Editor & Publisher

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Last week The New York Times announced that they would be introducing a metered pay wall to NYTimes.com by 2011, allowing readers to view a certain number of articles on the Web site before they were prompted to pay. Since the issue of paying for online content has been at the forefront of discussions about media lately, we asked our readers: Would you be willing to pay the price to access NYT articles?

Your response? The majority votes nay.

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Back in July, we asked readers how much they would be willing to pay for The New York Times online, after a survey from NYTimes.com revealed that potential charges could be as high as $5 a month.

A whopping 44 percent of our readers responded that they wouldn’t pay anything to read the Times‘ content, which actually is a little bit better than both the national average of people willing to pay for online content (about 50 percent), and the percentage of random people in SoHo willing to open their wallets (63 percent), according to other polls.

But now that Arthur Sulzberger has actual — albeit far off — plans to put up a metered pay wall for the Times in 2011, we wondered if anyone’s tune has changed. So now the question isn’t how much you’re willing to pay, but if you’ll pay at all. Let us know!

Would You Pay to Read The New York Times Online?(trends)

Previously: Would You Pay To Read NYTimes.com?, New York Magazine Poll: Newspapers and New Media Neck and Neck, But No One Willing To Pay, New Yorkers Less Willing To Pay For Content Than Rest of Country

After months of hemming and hawing The New York Times today finally announced plans for a pay model for its Web site, NYTimes.com.

The model will be a metered plan, as predicted by New York magazine’s Gabriel Sherman over the weekend. Although announced today, the plan won’t go into effect until next year, the New York Times Co. said.

The metered plan will allow users to access a certain number of articles for free before being prompted to pay for additional access, much like The Financial Times‘ current model. Subscribers to the print edition will continue to have free access.

Said publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr.:

“Our new business model is designed to provide additional support for The New York Times‘ extraordinary, professional journalism. Our audiences are very loyal and we believe that our readers will pay for our award-winning digital content and services.”

Full release after the jump

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Over the past few months, we’ve asked you a number of questions relating to paid content. And you have responded overwhelmingly: it will take a lot for you to pay for your content online.

One of our favorite polls was this one, from August, when we asked you if you would pay for NYPost.com. The answer was a resounding no, with over 88 percent of our readers saying no way.

After the jump, your responses to what you would pay for

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Here’s one reason to read the print version of The New York Times instead of reading the paper online.

Over the weekend, All Things Digital’s Peter Kafka stumbled upon an embarrassing note from the Times to its readers.

Turns out, some readers of the Times‘s Web site have been exposed to malware. Explained the Times:

Some NYTimes.com readers have seen a pop-up box warning them about a virus and directing them to a site that claims to offer antivirus software. We believe this was generated by an unauthorized advertisement and are working to prevent the problem from recurring. If you see such a warning, we suggest that you not click on it. Instead, quit and restart your Web browser. Questions and comments can be sent to webeditor@nytimes.com.

Although experienced Web surfers are no strangers to virus threats, Web sites of large corporations like the Times are usually pretty safe. As Kafka explained, “You generally have to travel farther down the Internet publishing food chain to find these kind of bogus ads — go hunting for porn and/or illegal downloads, for instance, and you’ll find plenty of this stuff.”

But the Web advertising world is still pretty sketchy, and companies like the Times are still vulnerable to these kinds of attacks, Kafka said:

“Sometimes it’s the fault of ad networks the publishers use to move their unsold inventory; sometimes the bogus ads are bought directly from the publishers themselves.”

We’re sure the Times didn’t want to acknowledge the problem, but it was important for them to do so. No one can say they don’t care about their readers’ computer health. Hopefully, they’ll find the malware culprit, banish it from their site forever and work harder in the future to avoid any more embarrassing virus attacks.

Home Delivery: The New York Times Serves Up Some Malware — All Things Digital

Two former ad executives from The New York Times have joined forces to launch a marketing and advertising sales rep company with an international focus. But they’re not just throwing around their former employer’s name just to get publicity for their growing company — the Times is also one of their first clients.

Founders Claire LaRosa (left) and Warren Ho said their company, Media Sales International, will initially focus on Latin America before expanding into other foreign markets. The company will be producing special advertising economic reports for the Times‘ digital and print editions.

LaRosa worked at the Times for 31 years in various ad sales management positions. Ho worked alongside LaRosa for 10 years selling advertising for the Times, and he has also worked for Conde Nast Traveler and The Los Angeles Times.

“We have the expertise to help clients outside the United States target and reach key audiences, such as leaders in business and government in the States,” LaRosa said. “The New York Times and nytimes.com provide extremely effective venues for reaching influential, decision-maker audiences. And the net combined audience of more than 20 million is a powerful story and offer.”

(Photo via Media Sales International)

NPR announced today that after an eight month search they have named Vivian Schiller President and Chief Executive Officer, effective January 5, 2009. Schiller comes to NPR from The New York Times Company where she is currently serving as Senior Vice President and General Manager of NYTimes.com. Per the press release:

During her tenure at The New York Times, she led the day-to-day operations of NYTimes.com, the largest newspaper website on the Internet, overseeing product, technology, marketing, classifieds, strategic planning and business development. Before joining NYTimes.com, Ms. Schiller spent four years as Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Discovery Times Channel, a joint venture of The New York Times and Discovery Communications.

Full release after the jump.

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More social networking news to report. The NYTimes.com announced today that it’s forming a “strategic relationship” with LinkedIn that will give LinkedIn members a “more focused and personalized experience on the Business and Technology pages of NYTimes.com.” According to the press release LinkedIn users will be able to have news “relevant to their professional industries (based on “non-personally identifiable attributes”) recommended to them on the Business and Technology pages of NYTimes.com.”

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