New York Times executive editor Bill Keller announced at last night’s dinner for the Foreign Press Association that the paper will begin charging for access to its online content beginning in January of 2011. Although the New York Times Co. announced its plans to begin charging earlier this year, last night marked the first time an actual timeline for the plan was unveiled.

When the plan was first announced by publisher Arthur Sulzberger back in January of this year, critics were wary at best.

Vanity Fair‘s Michael Wolff said that “there is not any greater reason to believe that Times readers are more willing or in a better position to pay. So, really only the levels of desperation have changed” and Reuters’ Felix Salmon noted that it is “almost impossible to build ‘active communities’ behind a paywall.”

We’ll see whether they’re right come January, we suppose.