http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010416/aponline201819_000.htm

Yahoo To Charge for Reading E-Mail

The Associated Press

Monday, April 16, 2001; 8:18 p.m. EDT

SANTA CLARA, Calif. –– Yahoo! Inc., looking for ways to cash in on the popularity of its Web site, will start charging for its service that reads e-mail messages over the phone.

Yahoo would not say what the fee will be, other than calling it a "low monthly subscription" in a notice on the Yahoo by Phone Web site. The charges are to begin May 7, though people signed up by then won't have to begin paying till June 7.

The Internet portal said it would introduce more fee-based services this year as it tries to reduce its reliance on advertising – which generated 90 percent of Yahoo's revenue last year.

Yahoo by Phone allows registered users to dial a toll-free number and have a computerized voice read their e-mail, plus news, weather and other information.

A Yahoo spokeswoman would not disclose how many people have been using the free service or how much money a subscription-based service might bring in.

-- (money m@king.schemes), April 17, 2001