The New York Times launched a brilliant new initiative that just may help improve its image. Stung by constant embarrassment over the mental droolings of columnists like Maureen Dowd, Paul Krugman and Bob Herbert, the Times has decided to partition off the offending writers, putting them behind a wall that costs $49.95 a year to breach.

No longer will the great unwashed masses of Internet writers be able to directly cite the work of these columnists, which may be precisely the point. Who’s going to bother paying for the privilege of fact-checking Paul Krugman? I’m sure I’m not the only one who won’t be forking over any cash to wade through the high school fantasies of Maureen Dowd, whose meandering columns read like notes taken by her psychologist.

I understand why the Times wishes to build a cocoon around itself, but doing so may only hasten its descent into irrelevance. Still, as an online-only reader of the paper, I applaud the decision. Not having the option of reading those columnists is going to save me a lot of time.