Freeing up paid content

Are you still steamed because The New York Times has insisted you pony up $50 a year to read your favorite opinion columnists online? You say you'd sooner never again read another word from Paul Krugman or Frank Rich than - everybody spit the words together now - pay for online content?

Don't look for any sympathy here. Not only do I believe the Times is doing the right thing, I'm all in favor of paid online content, period. The more the merrier. (If you really can't understand why, I'll show you my résumé, which reveals no discernible skills other than the one I'm exercising at the moment. Then I'll show you a picture of my kids.)

But fret not, my freebie-addicted friends, as there are those more attuned to your plight and they appear willing to help.

Coming soon to a Web browser near you is a new search engine called Congoo that promises to provide regular users with once-again-free access to a selection of otherwise pay-to-peek content - albeit on a limited basis and with a few strings attached.

According to co-founder and CEO Ash Nashed, the site - www.congoo.com - will launch in beta form within a few weeks. Here's how it will work:

Congoo is in the process of contracting with various publishers and providers of paid online content - newspapers, magazines, trade journals, financial services, even games and music download sites. The providers are agreeing to grant access to their paid content to Congoo users, with limitations set either on the number of free looks or duration of the access.

Users will enter search terms on Congoo as they would any other search engine, and the returned links would be presented in two groups: paid sites accessible by Congoo users free of charge, and general search results. Site users must register and accumulate points for each search they conduct, with those points being redeemable for access to paid content.

The points business might prove to be a turn-off, but Nashed is convinced that most will find it a small price to pay to avoid having to pay.

"We help the consumer access content that they wouldn't otherwise be able to access," says Nashed, who founded Choice Media in 1999 and sold it to a group of investors earlier this year. "So to the degree that we can help with that, we think we do make [paid content] a less bitter pill to swallow."