Surprise, surprise, Singapore Press Holdings is pushing its content, giving away its stories for free! And one doesn’t even have to ask for the stories, they poured in like unsolicited mail!
I couldn’t believe my eyes when I opened my Google Reader last night. On the home page was a new section called Top Recommendations listing feeds I hadn’t subscribed to but which Google Reader thought, based on my reading habits, I might be interested in. And there with a couple of popular Singapore blogs, an Indian business newspaper, the literary blog Elegant Variation, the opinion section of London’s Daily Telegraph and Forbes magazine was Singapore’s very own Business Times (BT).
I only had to click on the titles to subscribe to them or preview their latest articles first before clicking on the Subscribe button or the hyperlink, "No, thank you". Adding or deleting feeds from Google Reader is as simple as that. Subscription is just as simple on Bloglines, which has offered similar recommendations for years, but Google Reader is much faster. Rather than visit various websites to find out what they have to offer, one can simply scroll through Google Reader and call up the more interesting stories. It simply collects all the stories from the various websites one has subscribed to.
But I didn’t expect stories from the Business Times to pop up on my Google Reader. I hadn’t asked for them. Not that I am complaining. But it’s so unusual for Singapore Press Holdings to distribute its content free of charge. Yes, the Business Times can be read online for free after 2pm every day. But its sister paper, the much more widely circulated Straits Times, gives very little away for free; one has to pay to read most of the stories.
I don’t think the Business Times (circulation 30,400,according to the SPH website) is so desperate to increase readership that it’s deliberately pushing stories like unsolicited mail. But like any other newspaper, it has an RSS feed which can be picked up by Google Reader, Bloglines, My Yahoo or any other news reader. But why send those stories to me? The Google Reader Help Centre has the answer:
"Your recommendations list is automatically generated. It takes into
account the feeds you’re already subscribed to, as well as information
from your Web History, including your location."
And so Google Reader decided to "recommend" the Business Times stories to me.
The Business Times could restrict access to its RSS feed, like the Wall Street Journal does. But it isn’t, letting Google Reader distribute it for free. That’s pushing. Thank you!
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