[zhemao]

You could also take the cheapskate's way out and open the link in incognito mode.

I don't know what the NYT was thinking when they developed such an easily circumventable paywall.

[eob]

The NYT is executing a decade-long return to payment-based reporting. The early parts include easy-to-circumvent paywalls so that they can have some price discrimination [1] while also setting the social norms that payment is expected for web content. The later stages will likely include more rigid restrictions on content -- but that will only fly once "pay to read" is something people expect from expert content on the web, rather than are surprised by.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_discrimination

[HelloMcFly]

They were probably thinking about the diminishing ROI an increasingly strict and non-circumventable method would bring.

[tracker1]

That they need google to deliver the eyeballs.