Wall Street Journal online via your library

[Gollum]

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) currently has an article about credit card networks that I wanted to read, so I finally (I have known for a long time that WSJ articles are paywalled) did a search for how to access paywalled WSJ articles. I was pleased to be able to read the article online via my library, using my web browser and my library card number.

First I logged into my library's website using my web browser and my library card number, then (on my library's website) I searched for Wall Street Journal, and the result had a "Click here to access this full text electronic journal online" link. The rest is left as an exercise for the reader, but I was able to read the WSJ full article, and at the top of the webpage it said "Access provided by [my library name redacted]." Apparently my library uses ProQuest https://about.proquest.com/en/about/who-we-are/

[TrapLine]

Good information. Never gave it a thought. 

Do remember our library system has special networks where they offer subscriptions (they pay for them) to the library members.

[crystal626]

Yeah your library can be a great resource. Mine has WSJ, The Denver Post, New York Times, The Washington Post, and a bunch more through EBSCO.

We also have Libby for magazines, OverDrive, Hoopla, Kanopy, and we used to have access to one of the major online course providers but it seems like that's gone now and Consumer Reports is currently broken but I think you can access the magazines through Libby IIRC.

Definitely check into what your local library offers, there's a whole lot of value there.

[LiamDavis]

You can often get a free read on incognito mode too. Or by asking AI to summarize it. Sometimes it works. 

[crystal626]

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@LiamDavis wrote:

You can often get a free read on incognito mode too. Or by asking AI to summarize it. Sometimes it works. 

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You can also just use whatever option your browser has to turn an article into a wall of text on a lot of sites. I have Brave's Speedreader feature set to automatically enable itself on a number of sites with paywalls but I pay for Apple News+ so I get a lot of sites included in that anyway, it's just more convenient to use the actual website than go dig up the article on Apple News.

[Realist]

Not always, but often, you will find that most news sites copy one another for sources of information.  At times you can highlight the title, and copy search that into search engines.  This can produce the story that's hidden behind paywalls - or something very close.