New York Post Blocks iPad Users

WASHINGTON – The New York Post (NYPost.com) started blocking iPad users from accessing its website in a bid to drive iPad owners to subscribe for its paid application.

An iPad user trying to browse NYPost.com through iPad is greeted with a message, “NYPost.com editorial content is now only accessible on the iPad through the New York Post App.”

NYPost.com offers an iPad app which costs $1.99 for download from iTunes but requires the user to pay $6.99 per month to continue access to the site. A 60-day trial is given, however, to the users who just installed the app for the first time.

The ban of access to NYPost.com is exclusive to iPad’s Safari browser only; iPhone and desktop users can still access the site using Safari browser normally.

This move is the start of the latest campaign of News Corp.’s Rupert Murdoch to charge its online readers. And while millions of news seekers pay their monthly subscription, more readers are convinced to start looking for other websites which cater almost the same quality of news that New York Post offers.

However, some techie people said that only iPad’s Safari browser is blocked from NYPost.com, iPad owners can still have access to the site using a different browser like Opera Mini, Atomic and SkyFire.