We continue to post newspaper links to dance performances of all styles from around the world. As far as I know we post more than any other source on the Net and in addition I believe we are the now only source of current newspaper links indexed by Company name to make searches easy.<P>However, a couple of newspaper sites have revised their charging policies with an impact on our daily activity. The Financial Times still makes its own articles available free, but their excellent search engine facility is now a fee-paying service. The Irish Times has gone one step further and only their front page is available free. No doubt other newspapers will be watching these initiatives closely.<P>So, from now on we will post fewer articles linked to the FT site and none to the Irish Times. In addition you will find that some of the existing links on criticaldance to these papers will now demand your subscription details.<P>Looking on the bright side, I guarantee that you won't be short of reading material as our team of 10 or so searchers will still be posting around 20 links per day every day. <p>[This message has been edited by Stuart Sweeney (edited June 06, 2002).]

On the positive side: even if links are restricted or stop working, CD is still doing an amazing job just indexing the article! Boston Globe links, for example, expire in a month or two.<P>As long as appropriate information is included in a CD post (newspaper name, date of publication), then the enterprising researcher can always look it up in a library. I expect someone will use CD's archive for that purpose someday.<P>

citibob, that point about research and the broken links is interesting and I have to confess had not occurred to me.

revised to correct an error by Stuart - shock, horror, probe

The Independent

I do have sympathy for newspapers trying to make money from their websites. However, it is clearly a retrograde step for dance fans when previously free articles can only be referenced by paying a subscription.

There are various methods used:

1. The Times charges for articles over 1 week old if you access them by using their archive search function, but they can be accessed still free of charge via an existing CriticalDance link.
2. The FT articles are free initially, but then will be charged after a period
3. The Irish Times and The Wall Street Journal charge from day 1.

The Independent has moved someof itscoverage into category 2, but I am delighted to report that Arts coverage remains a free service. This is particularly satisfying as the Indie has three good correspondents across the weekday and Sunday editions. Occasionally you may come up with a subscription request for articles that appear in News or other sections.

Congratulations to The Independent for this policy, which is not only good for our dance-loving readers, but also for the Arts in general.

<small>[ 16 May 2003, 11:47 AM: Message edited by: Stuart Sweeney ]</small>