L.A. Times’ Annoying Gatekeeping

John Seiler:

I subscribe to the Los Angeles Times’ Sunday edition. So I get access to their online edition without paying more.

But it’s annoying. I have virus programs that reglarly get rid of the cookies that retain my log-on information. So I have to key it in the password almost every day. Which means I have to find it. How annoying.

I know there are programs that remember all the passwords. I tried one. It was annoying.

Today, I just skipped signing in and didn’t read the Times’ stories. Based on their headlines, which I could read, I just found other sources on the Internet. So I didn’t read the Times and didn’t see their ads.

I wrote about this earlier this month in my article, “L.A. Times Attempting Suicide.”

I also noticed that the New York Times reduced to 10 from 20 the number of articles you can read there for free. Well, I’m not paying.

I used to read some sports and entertainment stories there. No more. One story I found today was about Tim Tebow, the NFL quarterback, going to the New York Jets. I skipped the N.Y. Times article and just found one on nfl.yahoo.com.

A couple of days ago, I did use one of my allotment of NYT articles. While reading it, I clicked on a Mercedes ad. I can’t afford an new Mercedes, or even a Yaris, but I love cars. The NYT probably got about $1 from Mercedes for my click. That’s how it works. The NYT would get more clicks if I read more of its articles. But I won’t.

And that’s why it should be free.

And it’s why the NYT and the LAT are losing money and subscribers.

Sixteen years into the Internet Age, they still don’t get it.

March 22, 2012