I was away for barely a few days on a short holiday, to return and found my regular online newpaper site i.e. The Irish Times, is now available for free. I’ve been accessing the premium contents in the last few years without having to pay anything, thanks to the availability of institution subscription where I work. But now, it’s no longer subscription restricted. Good news for all non-subscribers!

Not only had the structure changed, the domain name is also different now. What was previously hosted on ireland.com is now transferred to irishtimes.com and ireland.com is now a beta site akin to something of a travel site. They could be tinkering about to change it as time goes too.

The layout of the new Irish Times site is very much like other online news site, rather blog like at the top with constant updates. Scroll down though, and you will find special features, digital newspaper (payment required!), news archive, email service etc.

What about the all important crossword puzzless? A special subscription is now in place for it. Gahhh! I am not liking this new site very much anymore. It has taken away one of my life’s little joy during my morning coffee break… I know, it’s not that expensive to be a member of the Crossword Club, but on account of principle (and budget), I’ll forgo it and I guess I’ll just have to search for other online crosswords as substitutes.

Some changes are for the better, some not quite so. Ah well, you win some, you lose some…