Comments on: The FT backs down on paywalled blogs

By: Golebiewski

Golebiewski — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 13:59:54 +0000

Mr Clark, there are micropayment solutions for online publishers, and they work very well — better than paywalls. Most publishers and journalists fear them, however, as they allow the readers to chose and reward their favorite authors. With that comes “commercial accountability,” the last things a journalist wants.

By: BuyHighSellLow

BuyHighSellLow — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 21:24:47 +0000

Mr Clark, thanks for the tip! Acessing Krugman right now (just keep this a secret between the two of us, won’t you?). Bill

By: KJMClark

KJMClark — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 22:31:20 +0000

The whole journalism industry needs to figure out a micropayment scheme. There’s no way I’m willing to shell out for the FT for a subscription, when I’m only going to access the occasional Alphaville post. But I *do* want to read an occasional Alphaville post, and I’d be willing to pay for that – on a per-post basis. Same with NYTimes and anyone else. Actually, for a while I did that with the NYTimes, but they scrapped that model.

Bill, if you figure out the titles of the NYTimes articles you want to read, you can read as much as you want for free by searching for the title and clicking the appropriate hit. Works every time. I usually hit NYTimes blog posts (Krugman and Economix) through CalculatedRisk (how I got to this article, BTW). But if I missed one, I can follow Krugman’s title chain backward this way to get the post I wanted to read. For example, right now there’s a Dowd editorial titled “Reputation, Reputation, Reputation.” If it go to their homepage and click it, I hit their paywall. If I search “Dowd reputation” in Bing, I get the same article, and if I click the link, I’m in no problem. (Just verified this.)

By: BuyHighSellLow

BuyHighSellLow — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 15:34:29 +0000

Felix,

I love your blog, but you DO seem to have an issue with the FT! All I have to do to get their blogs is register. Why is that a problem? In order to submit this reply I also have to register with Reuters (again, no problem). For the Times, I get 10 free articles a months – including blogs like Krugman or Nate Silver or Economix – and that’s it! Anything beyond that and I have to pay! You say that the Times allows free access via social media and other websites? Not in my experience. The same 10 articles month limit applies whether I go direct to the Times web site or whether I access via other websites.

Bill

By: gringcorp

gringcorp — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 11:22:22 +0000

At least I now know why they broke the full RSS feed. I know, I know, it was never very good for serving up ads, and RSS is DYING LIKE THE NABOO, but it’s definitely reduced my consumption of Alphaville.

By: Hippopotamax

Hippopotamax — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 00:19:38 +0000

Hear hear! The FT is my primary newspaper and since I don’t work in finance very few people I know have subscriptions. I am driven crazy that I can’t share what I’m reading without laborious work-arounds.