Monday · October 04 2004
I have to conclude that the typical newspaper in this country does not want you going on its Web site, and deliberately creates a barrier in order to prove to the shareholders that the Web is losing them money. It's a feeble attempt to emphasize the printed version of the paper at the Web site's expense. The Web seems to be just something that newspaper people feel they have to do because everyone else is doing it.
I can think of no good reason why I must provide a Chicago Tribune login every time I post a link to one of their articles. The system is so broken, it's laughable.
About the only newspaper site worth the subscription is the New York Times. But whenever I click on a link for the Kansas City Star or the LA Times or the Washington Post or some other paper and it prompts me to register, I just say "screw it, it's not worth it."
And you don't even need to register for the NYT if you don't want to. You should use the NYT link generator...
http://nytimes.blogspace.com/genlink
Gets around the pay-for-archived-articles garbage too. No reg needed.
An option for the other sites is to use http://www.bugmenot.com to get a community login.
since the quality of newspaper is pretty poor where i live- i've been thinking of signing up to get the New York times daily- jay- what do you suggest as the best way- should i just order it and pay or is there a better service online?
If you don't mind reading it online, I would say just go ahead and do that for free. Before I started listening to the audio digest on the way to work, I had the daily news digest delivered to my inbox. It all depends on how you like to consume news. I don't do the print paper anymore because they just end up piling up in the corner and it's a big waste.
SFGate.com is also a quality online news source produced by the San Francisco Chronicle. That may have more content relevant to where you live.