Blogger Tip: NYT Archives

James Joyner · Sunday, October 30, 2005 · 2 comments

I’ve noted before a trick I learned from Kevin Drum: That, while links to articles from the New York Times go stale after a few days, forcing those who want to read them to purchase them at outrageous rates, they offer bloggers the ability to link to an RSS version by searching for an alternative URL at the New York Times Link Generator.

That only works, though, if the link is fresh.

In writing my previous post, I found an expired NYT link after doing a Google search for some quoted text mentioned by Ivo Daalder. The redirected link gave me the first 50 words and offered to sell me the rest. I next went to Kevin Drum’s archives but, alas, he linked the same version (the RSS version sometimes isn’t available the first couple of hours after the story goes online).

But here’s something new (to me at least): The Link Generator now notes that, if it doesn’t work, “try adding /partner/rssnyt onto the end.”

It worked!

So, if you come across a link to a NYT article that has expired, try appending /partner/rssnyt and cross your fingers.