Saturday, March 19, 2011

No More Unlimited Free Views

The New York Times has decided to limit free access to 20 free articles a month, or 5 via search sites per day.  That's if I understand what they've written.

12. Can I still access NYTimes.com articles through Facebook, Twitter, search engines or my blog? Back to top .Yes. We encourage links from Facebook, Twitter, search engines, blogs and social media. When you visit NYTimes.com through a link from one of these channels, that article (or video, slide show, etc.) will count toward your monthly limit of 20 free articles, but you will still be able to view it even if you've already read your 20 free articles.

When you visit NYTimes.com by clicking links in search results, you'll have a daily limit of 5 free articles. This limit applies to the majority of search engines.

13. How can I keep track of how many articles I have read each month? Back to top .When you get close to your monthly limit, pop-up alerts will begin to appear at the bottom of pages you read on NYTimes.com. The alerts will tell you how many free articles remain in the current month. Note that the number of "remaining" articles does not include the article you're currently viewing; the current article counts as an "already read" article.
This will affect Shiloh Musings more than this blog, but it means that I'll be linking to other news sites.  The Jerusalem Post seems to have instituted a different way of making people pay.  Some articles are free and others aren't.

Now, I don't get paid for writing, blogging etc, so there's no budget to pay to link an article.  I'm doing them a favor when I link their articles.  Yes, I read more than I link, but that's obvious; I must check them out.  If I can't access the NY Times for free, I just won't read it.  I'll survive.

2 comments:

Isreview said...

I wonder how many people will pay for the NY times when you can get so much on line for free.

I'm with you I will not "miss" them.

It will be interesting to see if they will "fail" or others follow their lead.
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Daniela
http://isreview1.blogspot.com

Batya said...

I'm sure some people will find it worth while, but I'm not one of them.