I get that the newspaper and entire print industry is going through a rough time with advertisers dropping left and right and their subscriber base dwindling, but I’m still not sold on the idea of charging for access to news stories online as the way to save the news industry. Nevertheless, the New York Times made the decision to begin charging for access to their online news stories and features, and that went into effect on Monday afternoon. You’ll still be able to read up to 20 articles per month for free if you come to the NY Times’ website via a search engine such as Google, but if you dial up the site directly you won’t have that option. My motto has always been, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way”, and in this case, if you’re willing to do some finagling, you can still read much of the NY Times’ content online for free. If you’re lazy and have the extra cash to justify a subscription, then by all means, get a subscription. But if you’re like me, a casual reader of the NY Times who probably reads more than their 20 articles a month but not enough to justify paying $35 every four weeks, then you’ll want to check out some of these work-arounds that will help you achieve your goal of reading the NY Times for free online:
Use Social Media Feeds
The NY Times loves social media and makes good use of it, having more than 250 Twitter accounts that covers just about every section and blog and every writer. If you haven’t signed up for Twitter yet, now’s probably a good time to do so. Clicking through their Twitter feed links will take you to the full article, without harassing you to pay. But it’s not just the NY Times’ official feeds that will let you click through for full access to an article — any link shared on the site will put you through. The same trick will also work on Facebook. The NY Times does not want to stop people from sharing a big or interesting story with their friends and acquaintances by putting up a paywall, so for now this is an easy way to get around it.
Use the NYTClean Bookmarklet
Another way to beat the system involves utilizing the NYTClean bookmarklet. Sure, it will require an extra click for every article, but you’ll accomplish your ultimate goal of reading the New York Times’ for free online. To get started, point your browser to this page on the Euri.ca Blog and then click and hold on the NYTClean link located in the middle of the page and drag it to your bookmarks toolbar. Anytime you hit a page on the NY Times’ website asking you to cough up some cash to continue reading, simply hit the NYTClean bookmark in your toolbar. Magically, it works and you’re redirected to a free version of the article.
User the NY Times Paywall User Script
If the bookmarklet process described above sounds too complicated or time-consuming (it’s not really), or you’d rather just automate the process of getting to the free version of a NY Times article every time you hit a stop page asking you to subscribe, a user script is just what the doctor ordered. Install the NY Times Paywall user script from UserScripts.org. Firefox users will first need to install Greasemonkey, and then click “Install” on the script pages. Chrome users just need to click “Install”, while Safari users can set up Greasekit to manage user scripts. For Internet Explorer the Trixie add-on should help you manage user scripts.
Install the New York Times Paywall Smasher for Google Chrome
Chrome users have another option for automating their free access to New York Times’ online content. Introducing the New York Times Paywall Smasher browser extension. Just follow this link while using Chrome, and click “Install” and you”ll be good to go.
Access the Site Using a Proxy
The NY Times checks your IP address to see how often you’re visiting their site and reading their articles. So, you could use different computers in different locations to read their articles, but that’s probably quite a hassle. Instead of physically relocating yourself, simply re-route your web queries using a proxy. There are a number of free proxy websites online, such as HideMyAss.com, which mask your actual IP and make it appear as though you are accessing a site from elsewhere.
Use Google to Read 5 Articles for Free Daily
This method still limits you somewhat, but you’ll get a lot more free content than you would if you simply went directly to the New York Times’ website.
If you’ve stumbled on any other ways to bypass the New York Times’ limits on free access, please share in the comments.
It isn’t a perfect solution, but most libraries allow you to access the NYT through their database subscriptions- if you have a library card and live in an area with good libray resources then you can log on and read any article you want- and also many other articles from different publications that have never been free!
The link to the New York Times Paywall Smasher for Google Chrome is no good.
You’re writing on how to read the NYT for free? You’ve got to be kidding….that left wing liberal piece of fishwrap isn’t worth the time spent trying to figure out how to read it for free…no wonder its advertising revenues are down…and you are passing on drivel on how to access it for free? Please…
Spoken like a teabagger.
hey thanks for the advice
hey thanks for the advice
He he, very cute guide.
Thank you
did anyone try changing their browser identifier (user agent) to whatever the current google bot identifier string is? everyone lets google read their stuff for free. :)
I could care less about the NYT so I won’t be spending any time testing this.
Interesting…you want to read the New York Times for free? Keep doing this and there will no longer be a New York Times for you and others to even read, and in addition, you will be helping destroy people’s jobs. Just pay for it! Or continue to cheat and steal
Hey Sandy,
When I go past the news stand, if I glance at the NYT should I be required to send the NYT some money?
What if I read the NYT at the library or the hair salon?
How much do you send them?
Even better, how about everyone be required to send the NYT some money because after all, simply hanging up a web site means you should get paid mad amounts of cash. Speaking of which, I am awaiting my check from you Sandy for my site that I put up. After all I should get paid too.
Right with you Sandy. And get a grip Payme — the problem is not with casual occasional reading. If that was the case, then the 20 articles a month via a search engine wouldn’t be an issue. The fact remains — if people can’t make a living off of their livelihood, then their livelihood becomes a 3-hour-per-week hobby and McDonalds is their new “livelihood”. Respect the people whose work you are enjoying; pay for the product or enjoy it without resorting to scripts and smashers.
In that case why don’t you send money to all those fancy websites that you like so much to pay the staff! :) In other words either quite being a liberal hypocrite or get the hell out of the country if you want to be greedy.
I’ll buy you a one way ticket if you don’t have the money.
Spoken like a rich person.
Actually that will probably be a good thing because the NYT is a dead newspaper anyways with dead people running it.
Sometimes the only way for change to happen is for the old ways to die out though not totally eliminated but sometimes you have to cut ties to the past.
Ask a family member with more money and has a NYT subscription for their username and password. It’s cost free and hassle free.
Just delete everything past the last ampersand symbol & and press enter. This symbol and remaining gibberish redirects you to the pay window.
What is this last ampersand symbol? Can you give an example with some link samples?
This works perfectly using Dolphin on an Android phone as well. Just delete everything after the ampersand (&), load, and Bob’s your uncle.
You can read it for free online at Starbucks.
You can read it for free online at Starbucks.
This works for me using IE 8 on XP. Create a little batch file that says:
del “C:Documents and SettingsYOUR USER FOLDERCookies*nytimes[?].txt”
Obviously YOUR USER FOLDER means whatever you call your user folder.
They are using cookies to count your reads. These cookies are not erased when you use the “delete cookies” feature in Internet Tools. There are multiple prefixes, so it’s easiest to use wildcards. Thus * and ? as placed. Delete the cookies, and you are good for 20 more reads. So, run the batch file daily or so.
Also, if you have multiple browsers installed, just switch. It will see you as a new “user agent”.
I just scroll the sidebar before the page finishes loading.
that easy
Just delete your cookies!
Just delete your cookies!
The Google method to read 5 articles a day works with Bing and Yahoo too, it doesn’t have to be Google, and the Google Chrome extension you are linking to no longer exists, not surprisingly.
In real life the only thing your paying for on Newspapers is the delivery fee for the person delivering it which is not needed online. If they cannot getennough money to pay for itself then they need to either drop the online newspaper digitally or make the homepage a very simple one with minimum graphics so the staff don’t have to work hard on it.
The funny thing is the New York times are the ones cheating and stealing especially since the newspaper is very left wing. It does not totally surprise me they are charging insane fees and the only way to fight back is like Robin Hood.
Steal from the rich and give to the poor. Don’t take anything they say for granted and always have cross
references to keep in check instead of parading around your views just
because NYT *experts* told you to.
If it weren’t for the fact that Occupy were so destructive in their parks and blocking business from running I’d take them a lot more seriously. Destroying the parks is a no go for me!
Hehe… just press the stop button before it completely loads the page… almost all pages will work now :)
they changed it to 10 wtf!!
Very Simple. Just disable Javascript in your browser that’s it. Enjoy.
Read it free on Firefox by browsing in ‘start Private Browsing’ under tools. No need to install anything.
They've changed the script so that NYTClean doesn't work anymore. But disabling Javascript in the browser before you go to a page works fine.
Newspapers are an example of capitalism out of control. I am not against capitalism itself but I am against companies owning other companies in order to take advantage of you.
The New York Slimes.
There needs to be a conscience which the greedy companies are desperate to get rid of and it shows as they pull of desperate maneuverers.