This morning saw an internet free-for-all as savvy browsers flocked to a blog that was flouting the paywall and positing articles written by Times journalist Caitlin Moran. There was even a Twitter account set up to direct readers to the site.
The Times response to the situation was to have the blog taken down immediately (the Twitter account has also vanished) while Moran’s tweeted the rogue blogger: “I applaud you, my friend. Very quietly, but I applaud you.”
The Times’ paywall has sparked fierce debate into the very fundamentals of what it means to be a newspaper. It all feels so aggressive. Newspapers are supposed to be for the people, sharing information that matters and is in the public interest, accessible to all!
Forgive me for playing devil’s advocate here, but what’s the big problem with paying for a product? Are we so used to free online content at the cost of being bombarded with advertisements? And anyway, we’ve all been paying for BBC content for years!
