The New York Post introduced a paywall last year that meant iPad users accessing its website with mobile Safari would be redirected to its official iPad app, and would then have to pay a monthly subscription fee to access its content. However, it has now performed a complete u-turn and scrapped that paywall completely.
The Post’s website is now available in all its glory on the iPad, allowing readers to access all of its content completely free. Although the site does present a popup inviting users to download the official iPad app — which still requires a subscription — this can easily be dismissed by hitting “Cancel,” and users then gain full access to the site.
Jeff Bercovici of Forbes reports that there’s no article limit like that applied to The New York Times, either. He was able to access more than 25 articles without running into any kind of barrier.
There’s no official announcement from the Post on this change, so the reasons for the paywall’s removal are unclear. It may be that it wasn’t as successful as initially hoped, but the Post’s iPad app has been relatively successful, and now sits as the fourth-highest grossing news app in the iTunes Store.
Bercovici believes the Post could simply be looking to capitalize on the iPad’s massive market share to boost traffic to its website.
Source: Forbes
Via: The Verge
