6 ms·

Why would anyone subscribe to NYT when the content is readily available online behind a trivially bypassed paywall?

by sigfubar 8y ago

p0wn 8y ago
Old people that use the internet.
- zatkin 8y ago
  I'm 27 and I pay for a digital subscription. Relative to the average age of the world, I'd say I'm "young".
tryptophan 8y ago
To pay for a service that they get? To support their journalism?
Judgmentality 8y ago
If nobody pays for it then pretty soon it won't be available at any cost to anyone.
pasiaj 8y ago
Because they want to suppport the creation of high quality journalism? Or because getting around the paywall is not trivial for everyone. Or because of the other benefits that subscribers get that others do not. Or because, for some, using a credit card is easier than some technical option.
theDoug 8y ago
Convenience and consistent access to a high quality experience. It's been shown time and again to work. At a certain age it's reasonable to consider one's time to have a non-zero value. It's what leads people to pay $10 a month to stream music, and even access movies, despite means which infringe on copyright being generally "free," easy, and also trivially accessed.
dubrocks 8y ago
Not as trivially-bypassed on mobile, I presume.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- mehrdadn 8y ago
  Open in incognito? (Not advocating bypassing, just responding to your comment.)
n_ 8y ago
I pay to support their journalism. The amount that I consume is probably less than what requires a subscription, but I started paying because I can afford it, and I feel like it’s important for them to have resources to do what they do.
glup 8y ago
Because I want it to be around in two years.
vkat 8y ago
I used to do that then one day I read that there were layoffs to cut costs, I subscribed that very day. If you can afford to pay and you consume the service then $9 per month is not a lot.
taurath 8y ago
I like their app - especially that I can just do a refresh and then offline view, which makes plane trips when I don't want to pay for wifi much more pleasant. They're also relatively sparse with their breaking news push notifications, so for the most part I don't feel like I need to "worry check" other news sites - if its of decent importance I'll get a push.
DonHopkins 8y ago
I love all the great open source software they've supported. https://d3js.org/ https://d3js.org/ https://www.quora.com/What-JavaScript-library-does-the-New-York-Times-website-use-for-infographics https://www.quora.com/What-JavaScript-library-does-the-New-Y... https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/3k3if4/hi_im_mike_bostock_creator_of_d3js_and_a_former/ https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/3k3if4/hi_... https://svelte.technology/ https://svelte.technology/ https://rollupjs.org/guide/en https://rollupjs.org/guide/en https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16247571 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16247571 um304 6 months ago [-] NYT has a history of hiring engineering rockstars. I believe creators of libraries like BackboneJS, UnderscoreJS, and D3 were at NYT when they had invented those amazing pieces of work. danso 6 months ago [-] I think Bostock had already created D3 by the time the NYT hired him: https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/3k3if4/hi_.. https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/3k3if4/hi_.... rich_harris 6 months ago [-] In fact, the creator of Backbone and Underscore — Jeremy Ashkenas — worked on this article until he left the NYT last year (to join the creator of D3, Mike Bostock, at https://observablehq.com https://observablehq.com)
lovelearning 8y ago
Some people are ethical.
- slig 8y ago
  Do you use adblock?
jrgaston 8y ago
Because it's well written and a good source of news that I've long been happy to support.
peteretep 8y ago
There's a few companies -- NYT, The Economist, WashPo -- that I pay for, and then spend time bypassing their paywalls, because their implementations are so irritating.

Why would anyone subscribe to NYT when the content is readily available online behind a trivially bypassed paywall?

p0wn 8y ago

Old people that use the internet.

zatkin 8y ago
I'm 27 and I pay for a digital subscription. Relative to the average age of the world, I'd say I'm "young".

tryptophan 8y ago

To pay for a service that they get? To support their journalism?

Judgmentality 8y ago

If nobody pays for it then pretty soon it won't be available at any cost to anyone.

pasiaj 8y ago

Because they want to suppport the creation of high quality journalism? Or because getting around the paywall is not trivial for everyone. Or because of the other benefits that subscribers get that others do not. Or because, for some, using a credit card is easier than some technical option.

theDoug 8y ago

Convenience and consistent access to a high quality experience. It's been shown time and again to work. At a certain age it's reasonable to consider one's time to have a non-zero value. It's what leads people to pay $10 a month to stream music, and even access movies, despite means which infringe on copyright being generally "free," easy, and also trivially accessed.

dubrocks 8y ago

Not as trivially-bypassed on mobile, I presume.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
mehrdadn 8y ago
Open in incognito? (Not advocating bypassing, just responding to your comment.)

n_ 8y ago

I pay to support their journalism. The amount that I consume is probably less than what requires a subscription, but I started paying because I can afford it, and I feel like it’s important for them to have resources to do what they do.

glup 8y ago

Because I want it to be around in two years.

vkat 8y ago

I used to do that then one day I read that there were layoffs to cut costs, I subscribed that very day. If you can afford to pay and you consume the service then $9 per month is not a lot.

taurath 8y ago

I like their app - especially that I can just do a refresh and then offline view, which makes plane trips when I don't want to pay for wifi much more pleasant. They're also relatively sparse with their breaking news push notifications, so for the most part I don't feel like I need to "worry check" other news sites - if its of decent importance I'll get a push.

DonHopkins 8y ago

I love all the great open source software they've supported. https://d3js.org/ https://d3js.org/ https://www.quora.com/What-JavaScript-library-does-the-New-York-Times-website-use-for-infographics https://www.quora.com/What-JavaScript-library-does-the-New-Y... https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/3k3if4/hi_im_mike_bostock_creator_of_d3js_and_a_former/ https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/3k3if4/hi_... https://svelte.technology/ https://svelte.technology/ https://rollupjs.org/guide/en https://rollupjs.org/guide/en https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16247571 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16247571 um304 6 months ago [-] NYT has a history of hiring engineering rockstars. I believe creators of libraries like BackboneJS, UnderscoreJS, and D3 were at NYT when they had invented those amazing pieces of work. danso 6 months ago [-] I think Bostock had already created D3 by the time the NYT hired him: https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/3k3if4/hi_.. https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/3k3if4/hi_.... rich_harris 6 months ago [-] In fact, the creator of Backbone and Underscore — Jeremy Ashkenas — worked on this article until he left the NYT last year (to join the creator of D3, Mike Bostock, at https://observablehq.com https://observablehq.com)

lovelearning 8y ago

Some people are ethical.

slig 8y ago
Do you use adblock?

jrgaston 8y ago

Because it's well written and a good source of news that I've long been happy to support.

peteretep 8y ago

There's a few companies -- NYT, The Economist, WashPo -- that I pay for, and then spend time bypassing their paywalls, because their implementations are so irritating.