There are several news sites that now offer content only to paid subscribers. The Wall Street Journal is an example. If you are not a subscriber you can only read a preview of the content. To read the full article you must subscribe to the site.
Fortunately there is a way around this so you can read full articles. This comes by way of the Google First Click Free program. If you use a site a lot I would urge you to subscribe to it, but if you just want to read one article this trick might work.
The Google Hack
Let’s say you want to read the story that has become a soap opera that now includes rumors of Conan O’Brien possibly leaving NBC if Jay Leno is given the 11:35 PM time slot. On the Wall Street Journal this story is “subscriber content” so you can only preview the full article.
Using a Google hack you can actually read the entire article. Here is how it works.
1. You see an article you want to read, but notice the little key next to it indicating it is subscriber content.
2. If you follow the article you are presented with a preview with an option to sign up for a subscription.
3. Now highlight the title of the story, in this case “O’Brien Mulls Leaving NBC”, right click and copy.
4. Now go to Google.com and paste the title of the story in the search box and click on Google search.
5. Google will return the result and the full article should be the first one. Click on that.
6. This should take you to the full article for your reading pleasure.
Other Sites?
This hack does not work with all sites, but for some it will. You also may need to use other methods of copy and paste such as using the URL to get the result.