The New York Times paywall dropped today! Local taste mapper Hunch took a look at who is trying to avoid the fees by navigating to articles through the @FreeNYT Twitter account (the Times is letting social media traffic in) and compared the freeloaders to readers of The New Yorker and The Wall Street Journal.
Not surprisingly, money is very important to @FreeNYT’s 4,200-some followers. (“Money is a thang,” Hunch wrote.) Hunch found that @FreeNYT subscribers consider themselves average tippers, for example, believe money governs society most, and most desire obtaining wealth for themselves. They also think the world needs more equality, would rather steal than beg and prefer crunchy tacos (Spot on! –ed.). They prefer getting news online over newspapers and magazines.
Note: @FreeNYT has a fraction of the follower counts of the other two publications, which means the data is less accurate. So what do we now know about the other two pubs? New Yorker readers had a manicure in the last month and haven’t downloaded music illegally. (Really?) WSJ readers have an accountant do their taxes and prefer Veronica over Betty. (Really? Is it just because she’s rich?)
Hunch’s insights are based on its taste graph, developed using the social media graph and via questions users answer on its website.
