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17 April 2011
Is anyone else ticked about this twenty article per month limit on the NYT? I couldn't read the Ethicist this morning. Grrrr.
I don't read enough NYT to worry about it but I am told it's cookie based so if you use "in private" browser session that should give you a new count each time.
Ha! I just cleared my cache and deleted cookies. When I'm not logged into the site, I can read it just fine! Strange.
Moonshine, I don't get the Canadian connection. Can't Canadians read the NYT?
When it first started there were some special offers floating around on the nytimes site. I got one and so I have it free for the rest of the year. I've also found that turning off javascript for nytimes.com with noscript will clear up the problem.
I'm far from the first person to ask this but I'm not sure I understand what the point of implementing such a leaky paywall is. Are they really going to make a lot of revenue from people who can't figure out a work-around?
I haven't actually tried it, but this page claims to have a bookmarklet to get around the limit. (A bookmarklet is a thing you drag to your Bookmarks, then click when you want to do something to the page).
Sorry. Haven't trusted the New York Times since it worked so hard to cheerlead for the Iraq War. Now it's cheerleading for the Koch brothers. Liberal Media? Not any more. And the Lifestyle content? It seems designed for White People who are so different from me that they've become a different race. The only good thing left is the Crossword Puzzle which is featured in my local paper (The San Luis Obispo Tribune, a McClatchy paper - maybe the ONLY newspaper chain that commits occasional acts of Journalism anymore).
In fact I was happy to notice that the number of MetaFilter front-page posts made from Single Link New York Times articles is WAY down since the paywall went up.
There is plenty of media that I am willing to pay for. The NYT is not one of them, since I mostly read puff pieces like Weddings and Celebrations/Sunday Magazine, and the occasional Nicholas Kristoff or Paul Krugman op-eds. It's not the place I go for my newsy-news. For that, I frequent Fox News. (I KEED!)
Yeah, I read it constantly for work, and do the crossword and all, so it makes sense for me. If I weren't reading more than 20 pieces a month it probably wouldn't matter to me. I guess if you're bumping your head up against the limit, though, it's something to consider. I subscribe to the Sunday-only delivery for $6 a week, and it comes with full digital access.
The Times does piss me off in all the ways that foop listed but I still think it's the best paper in the US right now. If they had an actual paywall, I'd probably pony up to read it.
It annoys me that reading a small article is the same as a long featured story. I think paywalls are a bad business idea; most people will go elsewhere. For the amount of time I read the NYTimes, the paywall is too pricey, though I'll occasionally pick up the paper edition.
The advertising community hasn't figured out how to transition to web content without resorting to giant floatover ads. Except for google ads, which are unobtrusive, context-aware and, from what I read, pretty profitable. The online edition doesn't leverage the power of the web.
I think paywalls are a bad business idea; most people will go elsewhere.
The numbers will go down but the ad dollars will actually go up. This is a smart move on their part despite the disappointment of the many who used to read it for free. They can now better collect and correlate data on people who read, and the fact that they've paid to take part makes their desirability to advertisers skyrocket, and the revenue goes up instead of down. I think we'll see a lot of other major outlets following in their steps soon. I actually think the web readership may not go that way, but it's already the way a lot of news and info apps work - free "lite" version, but a paywall for the real content. And the Times is important enough in important industries that people feel the content is essential and will pay for it.
IF you have a smartphone, check this out. Jessamyn turned me on to this app Access My Library, which you can use to find libraries near you and then go through that portal to read up-to-date stuff from their holdings - including subscriptions to newspapers and journals. Another way to read the Times "at" the library.
Oooo, thanks for the tips. Clearing cookies seems to work. Always looking for ways to save a few bucks in these trying times. While I appreciate all the work that goes into the NYT and the quality of the paper, I think $20/month is too expensive for an all-digital form, especially with all the ads on the website.
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