NY Times Closes Loophole

[ed. This was a bit of an unwelcome surprise a few days ago as I've been using this easy workaround ever since the paywall went up. But, they haven't closed all the loopholes yet and NYClean still seems to work (no telling for how long).]

After The New York Times introduced its digital paywall in early 2011, some frustrated readers came up with elaborate ways to get around it, including launching a special Twitter feed and browser app. But it turned out there was a much simpler workaround: just delete “?gwh=numbers” from the URL and it gets rid of the paywall banner.

Well, it only took about two years, but the Times has finally put the kibosh on this method. Joe Coscarelli at New York Magazine noticed that deleting these characters no longer worked and later confirmed as much with a rep from the Times.

"When we launched our digital subscription plan we knew there were loopholes to access our content beyond the allotted number of articles each month," the rep said. 'We have made some adjustments and will continue to make adjustments to optimize the gateway by implementing technical security solutions to prohibit abuse and protect the value of our content."

In the nearly two years since the paywall launched, the Times has racked up 668,000 paid digital subscribers across its network of publications, which has helped slow the company's decline in advertising revenue. In that time, the Times has also gradually lowered the number of articles readers can access for free. Now, it looks like the Times is ready to take the final steps necessary to pressure readers to either pay up or find their news elsewhere.

by Seth Fiegerman, Mashable | Read more:
Image courtesy of Flickr, Digiart2001 | jason.kuffer