New York Times and its paywall

OK, I've not blogged in a few days, mainly because we've been busy here at Ideal Interface Towers on a bunch of new business. But I couldn't let one piece of news go past without commenting on it...that the New York Times is more than just ready to stick up its paywall its going to 'meter' users for reading its content:

Starting in January 2011, a visitor to NYTimes.com will be allowed to view a certain number of articles free each month; to read more, the reader must pay a flat fee for unlimited access.

Now I could be wrong here, but haven't they tried this before in 2005?

BTW: yes they did and then they shot it down in 2007:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSWEN101120070918