I have been wondering whether all my links in previous posts to articles on the Times website would disappear behind the impenetrable paywall on D day. The answer seems (for the moment) to be no – all links to old articles seem still to be good. Which is nice… But I suspect in the future I won’t be driving so much traffic their way by linking to material that is not free. It doesn’t make sense to me to rely on pay-for material in a free blog.

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I confess I’m not sure how I feel about the paywall. I have noticed that when I do decide to buy a paper paper these days I more often choose The Guardian than The Times (I used to read both albeit for different purposes / experiences). I don’t feel I want to pay for a paper copy of a paper (The Times) that won’t let me see its website. On the other hand, The Guardian, which I can view for free on my iphone through their excellent app, I am happy to buy from time to time. This is not entirely logical consumer behaviour, but for me at least the paywall thing appears to have affected my brand loyalty.