Today marks a significant transition for The Huffington Post Media Group, as we introduce digital subscriptions for employees of The New York Times. It's an important step that we hope you will see as an investment in The Huffington Post, one that will strengthen our ability to provide high-quality journalism to readers around the world -- and especially to our readers inside The New York Times.
The change comes in two stages. Last week, we rolled out digital subscriptions to our readers in Winnipeg, Canada, which enabled us to fine-tune the customer experience. Plus, they're Canadians, eh? Today, we will begin offering digital subscriptions to employees of The New York Times.
If you don't live in Winnipeg or are not an employee of The New York Times, you will continue to have full and free access to our news, information, opinion, and the rest of our rich offerings.
If you are an employee of The New York Times, this is what you will be greeted with when you visit our site (click to enlarge):
This is how it will work, and what it means for you:
• On HuffingtonPost.com you can view the first 6 letters of each word at no charge (including slideshows of adorable kittens). After 6 letters, we will ask you to become a digital subscriber. You may choose to subscribe to see the rest of each word individually, or choose a package to access all words of more than 6 letters. This is an example of what you will see:
• Times employees who come to The Huffington Post through links from search, blogs, and social media will be able to freely access certain articles. For instance:
If you come in through Twitter, you'll be able to access for free words that contain more than six letters, but only those that refer to antiquated transportation machines (i.e. "funicular").
If you come in through Google, you'll be able to access stories of criminals who break into people's houses and then do strange things, such as take a shower or eat a snack.
If you come in through Digg, you'll be able to read for free all stories that refer to TV's Erik Estrada.
• Slideshows and videos of adorable kittens (our signature offering) will be available for free only to one very senior New York Times employee.
And, of course, stories that aggregate falsehoods to support an administration's efforts to take the country into a disastrous, decade-long war based on lies will always remain free.
Thank you for reading The Huffington Post, in all its forms.
Sincerely,
ARIANNA HUFFINGTON
President and Editor-in-Chief of The Huffington Post Media Group
Follow Arianna Huffington on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ariannahuff
PRICELESS!
Thnx.
I actually DID pay NYTimes a few years ago when they were charging for something, but it was something reasonable, like 30 bucks a year. I would go for that...
repeat liberally
Another function that could be considered would be for employees of the New York Times to receive their paper editions up to two weeks' after the public edition, which is what consistently happened to me as a subscriber living in the midwest.
Oh yes, and don't forget to automatically bill their credit cards every quarter without asking so that it's always too late for them to cancel the subscription without forking out another hundred bucks or so. Funny how that was always so prompt.