Paywall fail

[yakalskovich]

Putting the online edition of what may have once been the most prestigious newspaper on the planet behind a paywall (hoping that old reputation would finally make people shell out the money) seems to have failed abjectlyNot only does nobody read it, the articles can no longer be deep-linked, quoted with a reference, or listed on the page of the

Comments

[open_the_blinds]

One of our biggest local papers - The Leader - also has a paywall. I have a way through it when I'm work because they had to get a subscription (they don't deliver the paper early enough for us morning jocks to get the news before going on the air) but when I'm at home doing work related news things though, I'm screwed, because the page outside the paywall doesn't get updated nearly as often and almost never has the info I need.

[yakalskovich]

Your work could get you a subscription? I mean, if you're in local news and need it for work, you damn well ought to have it...

[open_the_blinds]

If it's something I really need that can't possibly wait I usually just cheat and use the work password from home - but I'm not sure if they can check that or not so I try not to do it too much.

And to make it even more fun, they actually just stopped the subscription on the paper version completely. So all we've got is the online version.

[yakalskovich]

Well, your work will WANT you to get at the news, won't they?

And if the subscription is good for no matter how many people to log in, then it's all right anyway.-

[tekalynn]

Yeah, that bothers me...but to be honest, whenever I've accessed that site in the past, all I could think was "Phew, the Times has really gone downhill," a la Blackadder.

[yakalskovich]

Murdoch is never good for a newspaper. But now, the Times is out of the loop. No bloggers link to their articles. No other newspapers or professional news sources link to their articles.

How stupid is that?