Today is the last day of April, and if you're anything like me, you are saying "Thank Goodness!" because you hit your twenty article limit on nytimes.com on April 2nd and you are forced to adjust for the remaining 3.5 weeks. In the second full month of their new implementation, I have run out of article quota very quickly. While you try to sell me on why I should buy a subscription (or not read the NYTimes) instead of viewing their advertisements, I will tell you about all of the different ways you can still view the nytimes articles without having a subscription.
Their pay wall is predicated upon being able to store cookies in your browser and giving access to articles from search engines like Google. That means you can use the following techniques to still view articles:
- Go Incognito - Specifically for Google's Chrome browser, if you right click on the link for the article you would like to read, Click on the "Open link in incognito window" you will be able to read the full article.
- Use a RSS Feed Reader - Set up something like Google Reader and start adding NYTimes RSS feeds. For example, if you copy the "Bucks" blog URL and paste it in the appropriate place in your feed reader, you can launch the articles from there. In general, this is a good way to keep track of sections you like to follow regularly in the paper.
- Use Different Browsers - Firefox, Internet Explorer 9, Opera, Safari, etc. they are all good now. Since they all of have separate cookie jars, you can build up your quota on each one.
- Go to Articles via Search Engines - I use the NYTimes for a lot for high quality recipes. They are usually well tested and have good stories that accompany them. If I am looking for a kale recipe I type "site:nytimes.com kale" in the search box. This will search only nytimes.com for articles with "kale." Clicking on these links will allow you to view the article even if you have maxed out your limit. Google News will also provide links that will take you there.
- Go Mobile - This is similar to using different browsers but I find that I read a lot of articles my phone
- Disable Cookies - Most browsers have a setting where you can disable all cookies. You probably won't be able to login if you have registered with a site and this might interfere with other sites where you do want to store cookies so do this in one of your browsers and use it for browsing the news.
Even with these work-arounds, I find myself going to the Times less and less and other lamestream news sources more. Other news outlets are probably loving the Times' decision. I doubt that the Times is going to be able to stick with its current model. I don't like it but I think the WSJ model of selectively locking articles is much better. We'll see how it plays out.
2 comments:
By the way. Good time from lifehacker.com by way of megaton. When you click on a link, after you have hit the pay wall, delete everything after the "?" in the URL and hit reload. I actually find this easier than some of the suggestions above.
You might consider paying for content that is worthwhile to you. I often contribute to sites with content I want to encourage, even when it's not required.
Ha! I don't have to circumvent the Times paywall, as I subscribe to the print edition.
Post a Comment