{"id":739736,"date":"2013-02-27T10:51:10","date_gmt":"2013-02-27T15:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paidcontent.org\/?p=225214"},"modified":"2013-02-27T10:51:10","modified_gmt":"2013-02-27T15:51:10","slug":"new-york-times-gives-starbucks-visitors-15-free-stories-a-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/739736","title":{"rendered":"New York Times gives Starbucks visitors 15 free stories a day"},"content":{"rendered":"

Caffeine-addicted New York Times<\/em>\u00a0fans are in luck — the paper is offering 15 free articles a day to those who surf its website while sitting in a Starbucks. This is just the\u00a0latest example of how news brands are using the public’s insatiable appetite for free WiFi as a vehicle to promote their content.<\/p>

Under the Times<\/em>‘ Starbucks plan, which went into effect last week but was announced today, readers will be entitled to read three articles a day from each of the News, Business, Technology and Most Emailed sections. The Times<\/em> will also offer three more articles from a rotating list of other sections like Sports.<\/p>

The Starbucks offer comes at a time when the Times<\/em> is tightening loopholes<\/a> around its so-called “metered paywall” which caps readers at 10 free articles a month.<\/p>

Times<\/em> spokesperson, Linda Zebian, confirmed by phone that the 15 articles available through Starbucks are in addition to the 10 free monthly ones. The catch, however, is that the Times’<\/em> chooses the free Starbuck stories. It offers them on a special landing page that looks like this:<\/p>

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Zebian would not provide specifics about the business arrangements between the Times<\/em> and Starbucks, and only noted that the Times<\/em> has long sold its newspapers through the coffee chain. Most Starbucks locations across the country provide free WiFi.<\/p>

The Starbucks gambit is just one way that news brands are using WiFi to promote and distribute their digital content. In August, the Wall Street Journal<\/em> announced a plan<\/a> to provide free WiFi access in more than 1300 hotspots in New York and San Francisco; the only requirement is for readers to log-in to the Journal’s<\/em> website.\u00a0These WiFi schemes provide the news companies not only with exposure, but also allow them to glean valuable customer data such as where and when readers visit their sites.<\/p>
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