The NY TIMES Welcomes hank330
By Henry Burt Stevens 6/30/2003
It’s true that the only constant is change.
For instance, I remember when The NY TIMES would only let me read news stories online if I gave them a credit card and paid for every word I received. That was back in the dark ages of the internet when the gatekeepers of information hoarded their knowledge and believed they could sock it to us if we wanted access. That idea capsized-they were all wet anyway-but they got really wet as the internet developed. The survivors who made it to shore knew the truth was to give it away.
Now, each day bright and freshly delivered to my email inbox are links to the latest top headlines from The NY Times. For free. Not only that, but there is a quick link to three or four top op-ed pieces, including Maureen Dowd. I used to think Ms Dowd was pretty sassy, but since she won a Pulitzer Prize I take her seriously. Also I can link to the main home page online and prowl the whole site free.
For an additional $19.95 per year on top of my free subscription to the top rated newspaper, regardless of current boo hoos, I receive an exceedingly effective news story tracker. I can track 10 subjects. When a track of interest appears in the current edition of the Times the link to the story comes to me in my mailbox. I follow deflation, ERA-Equal Rights Amendment, Patriot II and Howard Dean. I’m sure everyone else has spicier items than mine. Perhaps I should put in one for Howard Stern or Dixie Chicks. I have six unused trackers available.
So how does The NY Times make money? I don’t know. But they do want to charge me for articles that are more than 30 days old.
I was late coming to the internet. I’d been using computers since the very first Apple appeared. But I lived in a small town thirty miles from anywhere that would provide an internet connection in the early days.
Eventually internet connection did come to town and the little store front computer shop put a sign in its window, “One hour internet connection $20.00.” I put a floppy in my shirt pocket, went to the store and asked for a half hour. I’d never been on the internet before, but the owner gave me the two minute tour and turned me loose. I download the Wal-Mart annual financial statement they are required to file with the Security and Exchange Commission to my floppy, paid my $10.00 and went home. At home I opened the file on the floppy and printed the 80 pages. I was hooked. I’m still hooked after all these years.
These annual reports were historically difficult to get for people living in the rural areas. People living in cities, who had a brokerage account and a nearby brokerage office, could often get the information easier.
The internet has an equally attractive offer for world wide newspapers called Google News. Free.
This service, part of Google, the search engine, is an innovative news service completely computer created. No human hands or minds involved. All news stories world wide are ranked and linked in any of six subject categories; World, U.S., Business, Sports, Entertainment and Health. I can read the top stories by following the provided links. These stories are coming from newspapers world wide, so I end up reading news from the BBC, The Guardian, The Straites Times, The Hindu, WSWS World Socialist, and AL Bawaba. These papers, of course, have different points of view, which I find of value and interest to me.
But everything considered it’s still a great pleasure to start each day with a friendly “Welcome hank330,” from the The NY Times.
