« Three things South Indian cinema can teach Bollywood | Main | 10 treasures you can get to with Start > Run... »
December 11, 2006
HOWTO: Read New York Times Editorial Columnists For Free
Technorati has one of the best blog searches around, which also means they are solid purveyors of the shitstream. Their pages sometimes feature a banner ad though, which goes "55 million blogs... some of them have to be good." Turns out they are right—some of these blogs feature content for which the gray old lady charges a premium.
I was really bummed the day the New York Times editorial columnists, some of the United States' most influential thinkers, were unceremoniously dumped behind the TimesSelect paywall. The New York Times has content policies that may seem strangely anachronistic in today's new media world. Fine, charge me a premium for all your fancy verticals and lifestyle content, but at least leave these national debate-driving thinkers freely accessible!
Fortunately, thanks to Technorati, I can get my weekly fix of Maureen Dowd's articulate Bush-bashing and Paul Krugman's economic theories (I have sort of tired of Tom Friedman's persistent world-is-flat shtick). Some kind blogger always posts the full text of the column I want to read. Take today's column by Paul Krugman, called "Outsourcer in Chief." I hobbled over to Technorati and typed in "Outsourcer in Chief Paul Krugman" and found several full-text renditions in the first 10 results.
This has worked for me pretty well for the last month or so. I doubt there's a lot of other TimesSelect content on Technorati, so don't take this as a guaranteed way of drilling through the paywall. I wouldn't want to pay to access most TimesSelect content, but what content I might pay for, I can get for free. In this case, it looks like Robin Hoods have 'appropriated' the cathedral's jewels for the bazaar's good.
Posted by Vishy at December 11, 2006 08:18 PM