Did The NYTimes Just Offload Its Front Page To The Atlantic?

from the seems-like-it dept

Tue, Apr 5th 2011 9:13pm — Mike Masnick

We've already pointed out how the NY Times' "paywall," which says it's okay if you click from any other site rather than the NY Times' own site, appears to harm the NY Times and help competitors, and it seems some competitors are stepping up into the breach. The Atlantic, which has embraced the internet, perhaps like no other old school publication, has now started highlighting which NY Times stories you might want to read each day. And, since you're coming from The Atlantic, you can read those articles without having to pay the paywall master. In other words, the Atlantic now provides a better front page to the NY Times than the NY Times does itself.

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Filed Under: journalism, paywall, websites
Companies: ny times, the atlantic

14 Comments

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MrWilson, 5 Apr 2011 @ 9:46pm

The Atlantic should be sued for the anti-competitive practice of directing traffic towards the NYT's own content.
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Anonymous Coward, 5 Apr 2011 @ 11:41pm

The NYT could do a lot better if it fired all those expensive reporters and editors and just linked to whatever news sounded best on the rest of the Internet. They can also get rid of Paul Krugman - he'll be forced to go blog on HuffPost for free and then the NYT can just link him there (adding their own ads to the transaction, natch).
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Anonymous Coward, 5 Apr 2011 @ 11:44pm

Re:
...or he can go and write for the MSN News LoL
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Anonymous Coward, 5 Apr 2011 @ 11:56pm

I mean, if you think about it, let's say the NYT did fire all of its reporters and opinion writers and such. All those people are either going to find jobs at other news organizations, or become baristas. But the ones that find other jobs will continue writing news, and they'll post it on the Internet for free because who wants to be behind a paywall amirite? Some of the baristas will blog in their spare time, and so their content is also fair game.

The NYT can then just Google all their former reporters and link to whatever they write. It will be effectively identical content but they won't be paying a dime for it.

They could also just rehost the content on their own site and claim fair use so they can capture all the ad revenue. After all, how can you affect the market for a work when the work is given away for free?
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russell cole, 6 Apr 2011 @ 3:50am

ny times
I am interesting in seeing if this ill devised scheme of charging a monthly fee for the Times will be just unsuccessful or utterly unsuccessful. They should be encouraging circulation in order to increase ad revenues, not limiting consumption so that their ad revenue decreases.
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Anonymous Coward, 6 Apr 2011 @ 5:23am

My visits to the times decreased dramatically when I started to get prompts for registration simply to read articles. I then started to get news elsewhere, then I figured about not saving Times' cookies, but by then I had already replaced the Times with other sites of preference. My loss? Theirs? Who knows, but certainly a relationship altered for good.
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Dan, 6 Apr 2011 @ 6:10am

where?
Where does The Atlantic actually link to NYT articles? I have been poking around the site for a few minutes and have not found anything.
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Whatis42? (profile), 6 Apr 2011 @ 7:03am

Re: where?
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/business/2011/04/trimming-times-libyan-government-turmoil-mad-men-sav ed/36256/
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Anonymous Coward, 6 Apr 2011 @ 7:18am

Re:
They could. But why should people go to the NYT site when they can go the the site of the blogger or reporter (or whatever news org they work for)? Unless, the NYT actually builds a better site (which is unlikely, given their track record) people won't be visiting it and the Ad revenue will drop to zero. But, as long as the don't forget to link back to the original story, it's their problem how they get their content.
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Christopher Gizzi (profile), 6 Apr 2011 @ 8:00am

Such a Great Idea
I live in NYC. The Times is as New York as the Yankees, Times Square, Wall St., and Central Park. But I can't support a paper that puts such restrictions on its content and, as I've said in other comments, seems to be failing at every step.

The way I consume my news is through RSS - I've created my own aggregation system via Google's Reader & the various iPhone/iPad apps that sync with it. I expect summaries before clicking on a full article or seeing the whole thing without restriction.

The Atlantic Wire is a perfect substitute. And by acting as a human filter, I can focus on news that actually might have more of an impact to me if someone outside of NYC thought it important to mention on their site.

I'm impressed and I'll be looking into their site more. I actually never heard of it until now but I can promise I'll be visiting often to get the summary of my (former) newspaper.
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Whatis42? (profile), 6 Apr 2011 @ 8:33am

Re: Re: where?
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/business/2011/04/trimming-times-preparing-shutdown-big-particle-revea l/36385/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheAtlanticWire+%28The+A tlantic+Wire%29
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hmm (profile), 6 Apr 2011 @ 8:13pm

5 clicks
I remember somewhere someone said that anything that takes more than 5clicks to do tends to drive people away.

fortunately bypassing the paywall takes only 3.......

Ever think the paywall (all $40 million of it) has generated MORE than $40 million in publicity for the NYT and that was the game all along?

Cue easy to remove paywall, so millions of people visit going "I wonder if the paywall is as stupidly retarded as I've heard?......"
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hmm (profile), 6 Apr 2011 @ 8:14pm

also
I wonder if the NYT would put a story of what people think of the ease with which the paywall can be bypassed, BEHIND THE PAYWALL!!!!!
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font9a, 6 Apr 2011 @ 8:39pm

For $50 million the NYTImes spent on it's Paywall it could afford to pay it's journalists for a *very* long time.
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