Why Does It Have to Be That Way?
Instead of defending a “rule”, ask why it has to be that way.
This morning on Twitter, @cheeky_geeky complained that it was too much hassle to reset the password on his Washington Post account. @washingtonpost ’s reply was basically a defensive, You have to log in on other sites too, why are you picking on us?
Is that productive? No.
The truth is, they need logged-in users because having some demographic data makes you a more valuable audience member to sell ads to. I think most users are okay with that – we know you have to sell ads.
So the question might be, how else could we get information about this user? Maybe, instead of logging in, you ask the user to answer 3 quick demographic questions. Voila! Now you know something about them, your advertisers know something about them, and they can proceed to read your content without a lot of hassle.
@washingtonpost could propose a solution like this over Twitter, and get real user validation within minutes. It would take time to put this into action, but it would be a step in the right direction.
It might even go further: what if their loyal users were willing to share more demographic data about themselves? Faced with the very real threat that their favorite publications will go away entirely, at least some visitors will be willing to share their zip code and profession. Is it enough? Who knows? But no one will know unless someone starts asking.
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The Arrogance of Newspapers is Amazing
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