The New York Times yesterday announced plans to start charging readers for digital content, something the paper has long resisted.

Those who have a free account with the Times online can currently read up to 20 articles per month before they are met with a “paywall,” a request that a reader sign up for a paid subscription.

The Times will offer a tablet app, as well as a smartphone app. While the apps are free on download, each will require an in-app subscription purchase to view content. The smartphone app (BlackBerry, iPhone, Android) will cost $15 per month and the tablet app (iPad and TimesReader 2.0 for PCs) will cost $20 per month.

A third option for $35 per month allows a reader access to all of the New York Times digital content, including the smartphone app, tablet app and NYTimes.com.

Print subscribers who get home delivery get a free All Digital Access subscription. That package features unlimited access to the New York Times on any device.

By selling its app through Apple’s App Store, the New York Times has officially consented to Apple’s new controversial in-app subscriptions policy.

Now, when Apple brings a new subscriber to the app, Apple earns a 30 percent share of that subscription and when the publisher brings an existing or new subscriber to the app, the publisher keeps 100 percent and Apple earns nothing.

Companies like music subscription service Rhapsody have been vocal about the effect such a policy will have on their business. Rhapsody President Jon Irwin released a statement saying that an “Apple-imposed arrangement that requires us to pay 30 percent of our revenue to Apple, in addition to content fees that we pay to the music labels, publishers and artists, is economically untenable.”