Google unlocks 33% of publisher paywalls on July 30 • Hacker News Board

Re: Google unlocks 33% of publisher paywalls on July 30

#21

Post by shusson » Tue, Jul 30, 2019, 2:47 PM UTC

vorpalhex wrote: post #16

duxup wrote: post #6

I feel for sites that provide a service that want to bring users in, and still offer them some content up front for free. Having said that as a user I should be able to be anonymous at will too...

You can still offer people content for free and also not be defeated by incognito. Offer regular news articles for free, and make premium editorials and analysis require a (reasonably priced) subscription. But anecdotally, news orgs will never get my money while their subscription terms continue to be asinine. I will gladly give a newspaper $25 - $50 a year for access. I will not play these $X/week for odd week incre…

> while their subscription terms continue to be asinine

Agreed. The only official way to cancel a NYT subscription is to call them. Infuriating.

Re: Google unlocks 33% of publisher paywalls on July 30

#22

Post by hedora » Tue, Jul 30, 2019, 2:47 PM UTC

moioci wrote: post #18

Newbie question: Would it work for publishers to key off of IP address instead of using cookies?

Yes, but with a significant false positive rate due to IP address sharing, and you can get more articles by switching IP’s (unless someone else exhausted the new IP before you got it).

Re: Google unlocks 33% of publisher paywalls on July 30

#23

Post by bob_theslob646 » Tue, Jul 30, 2019, 2:48 PM UTC

Why is this a bad thing? The tone of the author makes it seem like this is catastrophic. Is it?

Re: Google unlocks 33% of publisher paywalls on July 30

#24

Post by unclesams-uncle » Tue, Jul 30, 2019, 2:48 PM UTC

One of my problems is that even with the publications I subscribe to, I still get plenty of ads served up to me. This problem is especially acute with the NY Times, where their Android app seems to have an issue loading both ads and content efficiently.

I guess that this situation is a result of trying to find the right balance in pricing.

That said, if I was guaranteed ad-free content, I would subscribe to more publications than use incognito mode to get around soft paywalls.

Re: Google unlocks 33% of publisher paywalls on July 30

#25

Post by radium3d » Tue, Jul 30, 2019, 2:49 PM UTC

They should think hard about their next move because all that these paywalls have done is make it so I don't read their articles, and I don't feel like I'm missing anything. Maybe I'm the only one? I'm definitely not signing up to read them either.

Re: Google unlocks 33% of publisher paywalls on July 30

#26

Post by duxup » Tue, Jul 30, 2019, 2:49 PM UTC

shusson wrote: post #21

vorpalhex wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can still offer people content for free and also not be defeated by incognito. Offer regular news articles for free, and make premium editorials and analysis require a (reasonably priced) subscription. But anecdotally, news orgs will never get my money while their subscription terms continue to be asinine. I will gladly give a newspaper $25 - $50 a year for access. I will not play these $X/week for odd week incre…

> while their subscription terms continue to be asinine Agreed. The only official way to cancel a NYT subscription is to call them. Infuriating.

At least as far as NYT Digital goes ... I can cancel my subscription online with the click of a button.

Re: Google unlocks 33% of publisher paywalls on July 30

#27

Post by eof » Tue, Jul 30, 2019, 2:49 PM UTC

moioci wrote: post #18

Newbie question: Would it work for publishers to key off of IP address instead of using cookies?

Not really. Problems arise when you have many people behind the same IP. You can hand-wave this problem away for family units behind a router, but you'll soon find out there are entire institutions (schools, office buildings with lots of unrelated companies in them, etc) that will share an IP.

Re: Google unlocks 33% of publisher paywalls on July 30

#28

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jul 30, 2019, 2:50 PM UTC

moioci wrote: post #18

Newbie question: Would it work for publishers to key off of IP address instead of using cookies?

[deleted]

Re: Google unlocks 33% of publisher paywalls on July 30

#29

Post by JeanMarcS » Tue, Jul 30, 2019, 2:50 PM UTC

Willson50 wrote: post #2

https://outline.com/Vvztk6

Thanks for that

Re: Google unlocks 33% of publisher paywalls on July 30

#30

Post by glerk » Tue, Jul 30, 2019, 2:52 PM UTC

shusson wrote: post #21

vorpalhex wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can still offer people content for free and also not be defeated by incognito. Offer regular news articles for free, and make premium editorials and analysis require a (reasonably priced) subscription. But anecdotally, news orgs will never get my money while their subscription terms continue to be asinine. I will gladly give a newspaper $25 - $50 a year for access. I will not play these $X/week for odd week incre…

> while their subscription terms continue to be asinine Agreed. The only official way to cancel a NYT subscription is to call them. Infuriating.

Same with the Economist. They must have crunched some numbers and determined this is more profitable.

I usually “unsubscribe” from these kind of services by changing my credit card to an empty prepaid one and let the payment bounce.