New York Times Will Partially Plug its Leaky Paywall
The New York Times' leaky paywall is about to become less leaky as the paper cuts the number of free articles available each month from 20 to 10.
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The paywall, which The Times implemented just about a year ago, has been praised as a success for bringing the paper more paying readers without completely alienating those who want just a taste online for free. But while that taste is getting smaller, a key loophole remains: Readers still get unlimited access to articles they find through a link in a search engine, blog, or social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, which means The Times still sees sharing as a crucial way to spread its content far and wide. The Times knows that if you hunt around long enough on Twitter you'll probably find a link to an article you're looking for, but it's betting that if you're that interested in its content, you'll just as soon pay after 10 articles as 20. The new restriction goes into effect starting in April.
