When the New York Times installed their paywall, they updated their Android app to “version 2.0”. Instead of being a fairly useful way to read the Times on my smartphone, it treated me to about 10 seconds of a black screen and then it crashed. After an update, I now only see a second or two of a black screen, then I get the Times’ headlines from the last time I opened the app. After another long wait, I see the newest headlines.
The old app used to have a small status bar telling me when it was last updated, and whether it is currently in the process of updating. This one has no status bar, so I’m left to guess whether the news I’m reading is the latest available. The old app occupied a fairly reasonable amount of my phone’s memory. The new one takes the most memory of any app on my phone, twice as much as the next biggest app (Google Maps, which does a hell of a lot more than show me a few news stories), and more than ten times the memory of the average app. Android has a feature that allows you to split the memory an app occupies between the phone’s main storage and the phone’s removable memory card. This app, even though it is gigantic, does not implement that feature.
In other words, when the paywall went in, the Times’ Android app, which is one of the selling points of the whole benighted scheme, was transformed from a reasonably useful convenience to a slow, buggy piece of shit. As much as I appreciate the Times’ reporting, there’s no way in hell I’m going to pay for something that doesn’t even work.
Elia Isquire
Hey I just wanted to shout out to whoever it was on here that pointed me towards the “NYTClean” book mark tool. I have a friend who can’t afford a subscription and this friend of mine has found it really useful to have this thing to circumvent the paywall. So my friend says thanks a lot.
Maude
@Elia Isquire:
I have it bookmarked.
The NYT blew it big time. A bunch of incompetents get together in a room and figure out the worst way to get money for the paper.
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
mix sir misteralot, the gray lady doesn’t love you, probably never loved you, she has moved on, maybe not for the better, but pining for the paper you used to know, whether it was real or not, isn’t going to bring her back. it isn’t going to make her love the new you,its just going to make her feel good about herself in a way you don’t want her to, that she was able to wrap you around her finger like she did.
burnspbesq
At the risk of drawing the Horde of Haters, let me just say that the NYT iPad app is a joy to use.
Derek
@4 burnspbesq
Second that. iPad and iPhone apps work great for me.
PaulW
Let the Invisible Hand of the Free Market bitchslap the NYTimes for you, buddy!
tom p
It didn’t.. at least not for me, and I never got any free offers. I just acted like it wasn’t there and BINGO!! Presto chango it never happened!
Joey Maloney
@top:
It’s funny, because “there’s no way in hell I’m going to pay for something that doesn’t even work” is exactly how I feel about the Times’ reporting.
Amir_Khalid
I use NYT Clean a lot, too. A print subscription to the NYT is not a serious option on my side of the planet. Still less is a bundle that packages it with access through devices I don’t have like a smartphone, iPad or Kindle.
I still think the NYT “pay meter” (as they call it; apparently they dislike the term “pay wall”) is as lame as it is because they’re in two minds over whether they should have it at all.
mclaren
Simple solution: throw away your cellphone. You’ll save money and you won’t have to deal with buggy piece-of-shit apps anymore.
Xecky Gilchrist
Sheesh, whaddaya want for a paltry $40M development budget?
jayackroyd
I’ve been very impressed with the NYT delivery on the blackberry. Fast loads, formatted clearly without having to reload. I was concerned that it would suck after the paywall implementation. We get the dead tree edition, so I have the full digital account, but for that to actually be meaningful, I expected difficulties logging on, staying logged on,etc.
But, nope. I’m always logged on. Even if there are two instances open.
Better to call it a “tip jar.” They’re not serious about blocking readers. This is just an attempt to get the people who don’t care about the money, or who prefer digital to dead tree and are willing to pay. “Price discrimination” like using rebates coupons rather than discounts, so that only the people who go to the trouble of getting the rebate pay. They want everyone who hits their 20th article on the tenth of the month who says “fuck it. I’ll just pay them. I don’t need the hassle.” to give them some money.
It’s, of course, difficult to know how widespread this understanding is at the Times. But I am sure there are some people who recognize that this is what they’ve done.
sukabi
@Joey Maloney: yep.
fraught
the ads on their free front page have become enormous, gigantic full screen la-di-das. Even if you pay for the thing. NYTclean is great but I still think that all the shelter, style, food and drink stuff can be had in many places by as-good or better writers.
Catsy
@jayackroyd: Whereas my response to the “I don’t need the hassle” dilemma is simply to hit Ctrl-W when I hit a paywall and look for my information somewhere else.
The NYT is not producing any content that is worth the price of admission or the time and effort required to bypass it, nor do I feel like rewarding their shitty reporting and poor business model with traffic.