# "registration required"--why does a news site demand it? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 19, 2005, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/registration-required-why-does-a-news-site-demand-it/295332 "2005-03-19T18:29:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2005, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/registration-required-why-does-a-news-site-demand-it/295332/1 "2005-03-19T18:29:53Z")
Many sites demand that you register before reading, say, simple articles from today’s news. WHY? I’m not going to post anything, not going to buy anything–I just want to read a column or two. So I have to hop over to hotmail or Yahoo, open a junk email account as John Doe, and register with the New York Times. Now I am deemed “officially registered”, and the Times will freely let me read its entire site. What does the Times benefit from this? They still know nothing about me.None of the spam they may generate will ever reach me, because I don’t even remember the email address I just created. All I have done is waste time, bandwidth, and disc space at both hotmail and the NYTimes. What am I misunderstanding here? ---
**Author:** ![Electronic\_Chaos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Electronic\_Chaos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electronic_Chaos)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2005, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/registration-required-why-does-a-news-site-demand-it/295332/2 "2005-03-19T18:36:56Z")
Well, your average internet user is more than likely not going to make an address soley for that purpose, and give them their primary one. Then, any spam sent their way is actually recieved. Please note, though, that I’m not even sure that these sites sell their lists to others. If that’s the case, then I have no clue why they’re collecting addresses though. And also, let me add, that I find requiring registration extremely annoying, and usually just click the back button if I get to a news site which requires it. ---
**Author:** ![CynicalGabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@CynicalGabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CynicalGabe)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2005, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/registration-required-why-does-a-news-site-demand-it/295332/3 "2005-03-19T18:40:39Z")
They get a mailing list with which they can attempt to sell subscriptions. And that they can sell to other advertisers to increase revenue. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2005, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/registration-required-why-does-a-news-site-demand-it/295332/4 "2005-03-19T18:42:03Z")
One reason to require users to register is so the site can target advertising more precisely. ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2005, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/registration-required-why-does-a-news-site-demand-it/295332/5 "2005-03-19T18:46:37Z")
Not an answer, but when I run across one that requires registration, I go to [bugmenot.com](http://www.bugmenot.com) and get an ID and password from there. Note: AFAIK, there is nothing illegal about bugmenot, although I know that news sites don’t like it. Also AFAIK, it doesn’t list user names/passwords for sites you have to pay for. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2005, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/registration-required-why-does-a-news-site-demand-it/295332/6 "2005-03-19T19:06:13Z")
Surely they must notice that they get an awful lot of people living in Schenectady New York, (Zip Code 12345)… ---
**Author:** ![tavistmorph2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/71c47a/32.png) [@tavistmorph2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tavistmorph2)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2005, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/registration-required-why-does-a-news-site-demand-it/295332/7 "2005-03-19T19:09:18Z")
The reason they require registration is so they can prove to advertisers that they have “50 million unique email addresses” which (theoretically) translates to 50 million unique users, as opposed to 10 million users who just visit the page five times each. Presumably, there’s no reason any one should register with more than one email address, so each registered email signifies yet another unique user, and some advertisers will pay more for the larger audience. Of course, in actual practice some people register to the site multiple times because they forgot their old password; but in general, the number gives the site a rough way to track how many unique users are on the site. Tracking by any other method (such as the IP address of your computer) is even more flawed because some people may be accessing the site from multiple computers (ie, home and work). ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2005, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/registration-required-why-does-a-news-site-demand-it/295332/8 "2005-03-19T19:16:02Z")
> [@CynicalGabe](#): > > They get a mailing list with which they can attempt to sell subscriptions. And that they can sell to other advertisers to increase revenue. The NY Times specifically says that they dont use your personal info, and I believe them, since when I registered there (a couple years ago) I checked my “fake” email address that I gave them, and there was no spam. > [@](#): > > One reason to require users to register is so the site can target advertising more precisely Sometimes they ask a lot of questions (your education level, income, occupation, etc)–but I always just check a few options at random–sometimes I’m a 30 year old PHd scientist, sometimes I’m a retired farmer.I feel sorry for any advertising manager who tries to build a marketing campaign based on my answers 🙂 So what do they gain by making me register? I just dont get it. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2005, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/registration-required-why-does-a-news-site-demand-it/295332/9 "2005-03-19T19:19:48Z")
> [@CynicalGabe](#): > > They get a mailing list with which they can attempt to sell subscriptions. And that they can sell to other advertisers to increase revenue. Allow me to say that this is almost certainly not true. The goal for web registration is almost always to track user pathways and increase targeted advertising. Rarely is it to sell subscriptions to newspapers (a losing proposition in most cases for the newspaper…no fooling). Due to the nature of my work I am, literally, registered (with my real information) at more than 400 news sites. I don’t get offers from most of them. Nor do I receive inordinate numbers of snail mail offers from firms I would considered ‘allied’ to these sites. - Jonathan Chance 15 year veteran of newspapers, magazines, circulation services and web services. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2005, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/registration-required-why-does-a-news-site-demand-it/295332/10 "2005-03-19T19:22:19Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > The NY Times specifically says that they dont use your personal info, and I believe them, since when I registered there (a couple years ago) I checked my “fake” email address that I gave them, and there was no spam. > Sometimes they ask a lot of questions (your education level, income, occupation, etc)–but I always just check a few options at random–sometimes I’m a 30 year old PHd scientist, sometimes I’m a retired farmer.I feel sorry for any advertising manager who tries to build a marketing campaign based on my answers 🙂 > > So what do they gain by making me register? I just dont get it. They gain the ability to put together, for their advertisers, a demographic breakdown of what their readers claim to be. This is audited by firms like [BPA International](http://www.bpai.com) and others. This is a longstanding business practice in publishing and promotes advertiser decisions and comfort-level. Many advertisers will simply not make a buy without some form of audit backing up the stated circulation/web visitors of the publication. ---
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2005, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/registration-required-why-does-a-news-site-demand-it/295332/11 "2005-03-19T21:11:18Z")
> [@Lsura](#): > > Not an answer, but when I run across one that requires registration, I go to [bugmenot.com](http://www.bugmenot.com) and get an ID and password from there. I’ve never bothered with that; usually I just back out of any site requiring registration, but if I’m in the mood to read the offending article anyway, I just randomly fill in junk for the stats. I wonder if they throw out all the 97 year old CEOs making $10,000 that have imaginative e-mail addresses like [a@b.com](mailto:a@b.com)? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/registration-required-why-does-a-news-site-demand-it/295332/12 "2005-03-20T17:01:15Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > So I have to hop over to hotmail or Yahoo, open a junk email account as John Doe, and register with the New York Times. Given that the _New York Times_ website explicitly states its [privacy policy](http://nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/privacy.html): > [@](#): > > If you so elect at registration or in the E-mail Preferences section of our Member Center, The New York Times on the Web will periodically send you promotional e-mail about services offered by The New York Times on the Web and its advertisers. . . . Except as permitted by this policy, The New York Times on the Web does not send unsolicited e-mail. why do you “have” to make and use a false identification? ---
**Author:** ![anson2995](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@anson2995](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anson2995)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/registration-required-why-does-a-news-site-demand-it/295332/13 "2005-03-20T17:37:39Z")
> [@tavistmorph2](#): > > The reason they require registration is so they can prove to advertisers that they have “50 million unique email addresses” which (theoretically) translates to 50 million unique users, as opposed to 10 million users who just visit the page five times each. As a columnist for a big city newspaper, I’ll second what \*\*tavistmorph2 \*\* says. My paper (and I presume others) want to show advertisers how many online subscribers they have. This is to help them bundle the sale of print ads and web ads. They also want to be able to show demographic information, most particularly the amount of out-of-town readers they attract on the web. ---
**Author:** ![Lips\_Obsession](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bbce88/32.png) [@Lips\_Obsession](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lips_Obsession)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/registration-required-why-does-a-news-site-demand-it/295332/14 "2005-03-21T15:34:21Z")
If you’re a FireFox user, there’s an extension available that integrates the BugMeNot website into a right-click option. Automatically does the look-up and fill in. It’s great. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/registration-required-why-does-a-news-site-demand-it/295332/15 "2005-03-21T17:06:32Z")
This is mainly the result of PHBs (“Pointed Haired Bosses”). Idiot managers who confuse data with information. I deliberately fill in whatever data I feel like at the time. That’s not information. It’s useless and _all_ such data collected by user fill-ins on the web are _useless_. A few years ago in Wired a website admin said that half of all users of his site were CEOs of their own company who make over a million dollars a year. So I’m sure his PHB is thrilled. If it’s a 100% guaranteed no-spam email address they want, okay. Otherwise … So, fight against the ignorance of the PHBs, don’t go along with it. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/registration-required-why-does-a-news-site-demand-it/295332/16 "2005-03-21T17:30:12Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > I deliberately fill in whatever data I feel like at the time. That’s not information. It’s useless and _all_ such data collected by user fill-ins on the web are _useless_. So in other words, you’re decrying a problem for which you are one of the parties responsible for causing it.