America's-most popular newspaper website today announced that the era of free online journalism is drawing to a close. The New York Times has become the biggest publisher yet to【C1】plans for a pay wall around its digital offering,【C2】the accepted practice that internet users will not pay for news. Struggling【C3】an evaporation of advertising and a downward drift in street corner sales, TheNew York Times【C4】to introduce a 'metered' model at the beginning of 2011. Readers will be required to pay when they have【C5】a set number of its online articles per month. The decision puts the 159-year-old newspaper【C6】the charging side of an increasingly wide chasm (鸿沟) in the media industry. But others, including the Guardian, have said they will not【C7】internet readers, and certain papers,【C8】London's Evening Standard, have gone further in abandoning readership revenue by making their print editions【C9】. The New York Times's publisher, Arthur Sulzberger,【C10】that the move is a gamble: 'This is a【C11】, to a certain degree, in where we think the web is going. ' Boasting a print【C12】of 995, 000 on weekdays and 1. 4 million on Sundays, The New York Times is the third-bestselling American newspaper,【C13】the Wall Street Journal and USA Today.【C14】most US papers focus on a single city, The New York Times is among the few that can【C15】national scope—as well as 16 bureaus in the New York area, it has 11 offices around the US and【C16】26 bureaus elsewhere in the world. But【C17】many in the publishing industry, the paper is in the grip of a【C18】financial crisis. Its parent company, the New York Times Company, has 15 papers, but【C19】a loss of $ 70 million in the nine months to September and recently accepted a $250 million【C20】from a Mexican billionaire, Carlos Slim, to strengthen its balance sheet. 【C1】