Tweeting Out Articles Behind A Paywall: Bad!

(I can’t make it any simpler than that.)

Please publishers. For the love of god learn a lesson. Today I clicked on a link by @newsday only to discover the story was behind a paywall! My immediate thought: WTF? Why would a publisher tweet a link out for their own stuff and then hide it behind a paywall. That is not a tease, it’s a slap in the face. It makes zero sense to do this. Let me read the stories you link to on twitter at least before hitting me up for a subscription.

By now everyone knows the basic courtesies and ideals behind social media. It’s about sharing and trust. When you hide your stories behind a paywall and then go to tweet links out to your followers without taking down the blockade for at least that one article, you erode (destroy) my trust. My time is important. Publishers who do this are on par with spammers.

Once I click on a link from the publisher itself to find the story is behind a paywall I know that publisher is not serious about social media. They are only there as an extension of their old school marketing programs. I get so infuriated by this. It displays such contempt for what we are trying to build here. Spammers are one thing. We know they’re a disruptive force playing a numbers game, but a major publisher? Please, get a clue. Hire a social media consultant as an adviser so you can get the basics right. Shit, read an article or two on Mashable. But do something that shows you are in the game and not just getting a bored intern to tweet out random links all day.