Its seems to be the latest trend that Media Companies are making their content available for free, like the New York Times. Some others like Financial Times are making some of it available and some other by subscription. Some others, like Rupert Murdoch for The Wall Street Journal, are planning to switch from a paid subscription to a free content one.
EMarketer Analyst (like Ben Mackin, David Hallerman, Lisa Phillips, Karin Von Abraham and Paul Verna) where analyzing this situation and here are some interesting charts (read the entire note here at emarketer).