how to look up newspaper articles for free.how to read newspaper articles with a free subscription.
You read an intriguing article about your favorite publication, but halfway through it hits you with paid access. If you currently cannot afford to pay subscription fees or are having payment issues, the following tips can help you bypass paid access and read subscription-based content for free.
Before we go any further, we must mention that all pay screens are built differently. Hence, one method may not help you bypass paid access to all websites. It is also important to note that this post is for informational purposes only. we do not advocate bypassing paid access.
Types of Paywall
It takes a lot of effort and resources to create content. Publishers need to make more money to create high quality content. For this reason, many online publishers use paywalls to drive revenue. Users who pay a certain fee will have access to blocked or paid content. There are two main types of paid access:
1. Hard paid access
This type of paid access requires prepayment (subscription) before accessing any content. Hard pay-access websites will only allow you to read a portion of the article. To access the full content, you will need to pay a subscription fee.
2. Soft Paywall
Publications using Programmatic Paid Access allow non-paying members to read a limited number of articles within a fixed period of time / session. Medium is one publishing platform that uses proprietary paywall. Non-subscription users can read only three articles per month for free. This type of paywall is usually easier to get around.
How to Read News Article for Free
The method used will depend on the type of paywall used by the website administrator. However, we are confident that at least one of the techniques described below should give you access to content that requires a subscription.
1. Stop Loading the Page
This is one quick trick that is effective on multiple web pages. The trick is to prevent your browser from fully loading the web page as soon as your browser displays the paid content text element.
Enter the URL of the web page in the address bar, press Enter and click the x (or press the Esc key) as soon as you see the text on the screen.
The main limitation is that stopping the website may not load all content items, especially multimedia files such as images, animations, videos, etc.
It should be noted that the success of this method depends on the order in which the website loads the page elements. For example, if a website loads paywall in front of the content, this trick has little or no chance of success.
2. Delete the Page Cookies
Many websites store cookies on your browser to track your activities, including the amount of content you view. Blog publishers can track the number of (free) articles you read using cookies stored in your browser. If you’ve reached the non-subscriber free article limit, deleting website cookies in your browser may reset the limit.
Go to the “Privacy” or “Security” section of your web browser and select the option to check cookies and site data for all websites. Then find the website on your browser’s cookie management page and click on “Delete All”.
This applies to Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Mozilla Firefox. For detailed instructions, see this guide on clearing the cache in any web browser.
This trick may not work on websites with hard paywalls – Medium is a good example. For software paid protection, you will also have to manually delete cookies every time you reach your free articles limit.
One more thing: this method will not give the desired result if the publisher uses other advanced tools (not just cookies) to track your activity. These technologies include IP address, browser fingerprints, WebRTC (real-time web communication), etc.
3. Try the Incognito Mode Hack
As explained earlier, not all paid screens are created equal. If your website uses a programmatic paywall, you can read subscription-based content in incognito mode or in private browsing mode. This will make the website believe that you are a new visitor, and thereby give you access to free content before you download the paid access.
This method is much better than manually deleting cookies from the website. This is because most web browsers do not transmit pre-existing cookies to the website you visit in incognito mode. Although the website temporarily stores new cookies on your device during private browsing sessions, they are deleted when you close the incognito window.
Press Ctrl + Shift + N (or Command + Shift + N on macOS) to open the incognito tab in Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge.
For Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer, the shortcut to launch the Private Browsing window is Ctrl + Shift + P (or Command + Shift + P on macOS).
If you’re using Safari, press Command + Shift + N to open a private browsing window and go to a paid web page.
4. Use Archive Websites as a Backdoor
There are web archiving tools that save copies of web pages and social media posts for reference purposes. You can use these tools to access paid content and read news articles for free by subscription. The reliable options are Archive.is, Archive.today, and Archive.ph.
Visit the archive website in a browser, enter the URL of the web page in the dedicated dialog box, and select Save.
The tools listed above include a Screenshot tool that converts a web page to a PNG image. Click the Screenshot option at the top of the results page to convert the page to an image file.
5. Use Paywall Removal Extensions
There are third-party browser extensions that can help you read newspaper articles by subscription for free. We tried several of these extensions and found that most of them didn’t work. The ones that are are not hosted in the Chrome Web Store, so you’ll have to get them from third party platforms.
We’ve done a great job and found this Bypass Paywalls extension for Chrome and Firefox to be effective. This extension allows you to read articles by subscription from hundreds of publications such as The New York Times, Wired, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, etc. It is also free, but you will have to manually download the extension to your browser. …
- Unpack the file anywhere on your computer.
- Start Chrome, paste the chrome: // extensions into the address bar and press Enter.
- Turn on developer mode.
- Click Unpackaged Download.
- Browse to the folder you extracted in step 2, select the extension folder and click the Select Folder button.
- On the Supported Sites tab, select the Select All / Nothing check box to select all preloaded websites.
If your publication is not in the list of preloaded websites, go to the Custom Sites tab and manually enter the site URL.
You can add as many websites as you like, one site / URL on each line. Please note that you cannot use the Custom Sites feature in Mozilla Firefox.
- Scroll down and select Save.
Visit the website or reload the web page and you will no longer have paid access.
Pay for Quality Content and Journalism
Once again, the tutorial is for informational purposes only. We are a strong believer in paying for quality content. If you are having difficulty paying for blocked content, contact your website administrator. Use these tricks only if attempts to make a payment or contact the site administrator prove futile.
Please note that the methods and tools mentioned above were working fine at the time of this posting. Some will not work on certain websites depending on the type of paywall used by the publisher. However, we cannot guarantee that these tools will permanently provide you with free access to read content on a subscription basis. Outline.com, for example, used to be a useful tool for circumventing paywalls. This no longer works for Wall Street Journal and New York Times articles.
how to read newspaper articles with a free subscription
how to look up newspaper articles for free.how to read newspaper articles with a free subscription