(Crain’s) — After a couple of years of talking about charging for online content to make up for declining print advertising revenue, The New York Times Co. has finally put its pay model where its mouth is. The company’s flagship newspaper announced Thursday that its new metering system and paid mobile applications will launch globally March 28. A smart phone app package was made available Thursday in Canada.  Employing a system similar to the one that has been used successfully for years by The Financial Times, NYTimes.com will allow visitors to read up to 20 articles a month without paying. Once they go over the limit, they’ll be charged $15 a month for access to the website and to the New York Times‘ smart phone app. A $20 monthly payment buys access to the website and the paper’s tablet app, while $35 is good for complete digital access. Subscribers to the print edition will continue to have free access to all digital extensions. As of September, the paper averaged 575,000 subscribers to the daily paper, and 990,000 to the Sunday edition, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

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