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Helen A.S. Popkin

Twitter account offers 'free' access to NYTimes

Using the cryptic black suit icon for hacktivist group Anonymous, "Free New York Times" (@freenyt) popped up today to help New York Times readers exploit the loophole in the newspaper's newly announced paywall ... not that it's so hard to exploit it on your own.

As of March 28, non-subscribers to the print edition of the New York Times will be charged web site access use of smart phone and tablet applications, the newspaper announced. Prices start at $15 for four weeks of full access to the website and mobile app, though non-subscribers will be able to view 20 articles a month on the website and see the "Top News" section via mobile apps.

Now, here are the loopholes: Clicking Google search results that link to NYTimes.com gives you five free articles that day. Further, any links to NYTimes.com stories you click on Twitter or Facebook don't count against your 20-story weekly total. Hence: @freenyt.

With "Everywhere" as the "Location," the bio for @freenyt reads, "Readers who come to Times articles through Twitter will be able to read those articles, even if they have reached their monthly reading limit. Coming soon..."

Elsewhere on Twitter, the New York Times paid to today's "Promoted Tweet," though many Twitter users are attaching the #NYTimesNews  hashtag to complaint tweets about the new plan.

@stardust_415 stardust_415  NYT will start to charge $15 to $35 for 4 weeks 3/28/11. $35 is the price of my data plan. It's too much!! LAME! #NYTimesNews

@tourable Note to #NYTimesNews: I've never paid for things I see on a screen, and I never will.

@thpt  #NYTimesNewsPaywall? Hard to feel sorry for decline of newspapers when they're this tone deaf to the internet after all this time.

Meanwhile, hashtags associated with Free New York Times haven't surfaced yet in the top trends, tweets and retweets for @freenyt are growing.

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Helen A.S. Popkin writes about Twitter and Facebook ... a lot. Join her on a Facebook or Twitter, won't you?