New York Post blocks Apple iPad users from reading its web site without paying for a subscription

Apple iPad 2 users are being held hostage by Rupert Murdoch in an attempt to get them to subscribe to the New York Post's mobile app. Other mobile platforms, like Android and BlackBerry, and desktop users do not face the firewall which re-directs users to a page that says that the New York Post in now available to Apple iPad users only though the newspaper's app available at the App Store. The New York Post app costs $7 per month or $75 for a full year.

Murdoch's company happens to own the pay-for-news publication The Daily that is available via subscription for the Apple iPad and this could be an effort by the News Corp. CEO to make sure that one way or another, News Corp. does not provide free news on the tablet. Another News Corp. paper, The Times of London, has also been put behind a firewall but that applies to all tablet platforms, not just iOS as with the NewYork Post. Murdoch is known to be against ad-supported, free news delivery to mobile internet users.

Interestingly, Android owners using the browser on their device to head to www.nypost.com are directed to the mobile version of the site while those clicking on www.newyorkpost.com are directed to the much more complex desktop version of the site. For its part, Apple had no comment on the NewYork Post's firewall blocking Apple iPad users.

source: DavidWiner via electronista