Quote:
Originally Posted by Elfwreck
The problem with the NY Times isn't that they want a paywall. Any site can do that; it's easy. It's that they want a paywall AND they want the same kind of constant publicity that goes with being a free news source online. They want people to link to their site, to drive new eyeballs to their adverts, to quote NY Times articles to each other to encourage more readers.
And they want to be paid per reader. Or per reader who reads over a certain amount.
They strike me as wanting to put up a toll lane for people turning left on a busy intersection, and then being surprised when people go a few blocks farther and double back instead of paying it.
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I wouldn't think it would be
that hard to keep track of how many times someone's read an article on your site, and to throw up a serious barrier on the x+1 time they try it. But the problem they have is that there are far too many alternate places to get information. The harder they try to nail people down, the more attractive they make those alternate sources look.