Why is this disturbing, exactly?
Do you feel journalists should write articles for free?
Do you feel journalists should write articles for free?
Why is purchasing by subscription bad, but selling articles individually good? There are benefits to both. Personally, I'd rather pay a subscription because I read a lot of articles and buying them individually would be a pain in the ass.
If NYT was able to stay profitable with ads on their site, they wouldn't have thrown up the paywall to begin with.