Apple Thoughts: NY Times Offering Deal for Long Time Subscribers

"The New York Times has been criticized since it announced pricing for its online and mobile editions, but the newspaper is making moves to draw users in."

The moves they are making are offering long time customers, via email, a free one year subscription to the mobile apps (both iPhone and iPad) and the web version of the paper. Not sure yet who is defined as a "long time subscriber" but it's not a bad deal, and I wonder if this is in response to the complaints about the confusion of the pricing, and they hope to draw in their customers while they can? What are your thoughts?