The $NYT and the WSJ ($NWS) announced that they would drop the pay walls for today and allow the masses to behold their premium news content for free.
Let’s think about this behaviorally for a sec:
On a big hurricane news day, when each content portion is more valuable, the WSJ & $NYT are rewarding those who are not customers and who do not pay them with free access.
They are positively reinforcing non payment behavior – pretty simple operant conditioning.
Now, let’s think about this from a self-perception POV for a sec:
What might WSJ & $NYT be saying to themselves about this?
We are so critical to the Eastern seaboard as an emergency information sharing service that we NEED to be free for the masses on the day of the big storm for those who might not get the news from the internet, the weather channel, an email, my mom who called, the local news etc…
Funny, right? Well, maybe this one is closer…
Holy shit, we’ve become so marginalized that no one will even notice much less care if we are not the ones informing the masses and framing the story about this major emergency and potentially historic event.