This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/36116640
Source Press Gazette.
I was confused there for a second but apparently the BBC has introduced a paywall only for US users. Site is still completely free to read anywhere else, which is why I didnt even realize that there is a paywall.
Which of course means that US Americans could simply VPN their way around it..
This screenshot is from July 2025 when I got hit with a paywall and was served with a ton of cookies, so I set my VPN to UK, lol.
EDIT: This was around the same time as POTUS hit UK with tariffs.
The BBC has been run as a business now and it's absolutely stupid. It was never meant to make a profit that was never really the point. It was supposed to be a public service and a projection of soft power, that seems to have gone out to the window now.
I suspect a lot of the work at the BBC don't actually agree with this, but management don't listen to anyone.
This is a little surprising to me because I read it on a daily basis and haven't seen sign of the paywall yet. I don't know if Ublock Origin is simply squashing that as well, or I'm somehow lucky.
No paywall for me in America. I read the BBC all the time.
New York Crimes number one!
I'll say it again. Stop tracking me and I'll look at your ads. I look at physical mailers, like I literally look through them, more than I look at Internet ads.
I forgot about the paywall and assumed this was due to their international reputational damage, over things like their pro-Israel “reporting” of the occupations in Palestine.
I dropped BBC. Switched to DW and haven't looked back
Why not Australia ABC news or Canada CBC News?
The problem with ABC news in my experience is they assume their audience are familiar with the geopolitical situation in Asia and of course most westerners aren't.
Like the whole toilet paper thing during the pandemic. The way they reported it made it sound like it was a global issue rather than an Australia issue. The situation that arose to create that problem simply doesn't exist in other parts of the world, but because of the way they reported it, they made people think that it was an international problem. Then it actually became an international problem. Now granted, a certain amount of brainlessness has to be considered on the behalf of the people reading this stuff but still, it demonstrates the issue.
The report doesn't clearly establish a link between paywalls and a drop in site visits (which I would have liked to see).
One of the un-paywalled sites lost traffic mostly due to changes in the Google algorithm.
Overall, it just seems like a regular update of the website traffic rankings, juiced up by a clickbait headline.
I dropped NYT a while back and switched to APNews. Ive been pretty happy with them. I see that they are dropping readership too. Any reason why?
I don't even visit news sites, just about every major site has an rss. I simpy load my reader, refresh it and read the news without any annoyances.
I'm guessing the use of AI is partially contributing to this drop.
Take your money from the ISP's, not the people that use them. Fuck firewalls.
Pfft, fuck America, they deserve it while they allow a criminal to ruin the country and the world.
100% fuck America.
I got to nyt every day don't read articles and only play their games and leave all on a vpn
maga becomes increasingly racist and bbc instantly drops down the rankings. coincidence?
Bro, what are you talking about?
