Welcome to 2025! The year in which it costs $10 a week to guess the “sound of a cupcake hitting the floor, frosting-first.” 

(The answer is splat, by the way.)

In August, the New York Times Mini Crossword was placed behind a paywall of $10 per week (or about $40 per month). Now, the game that we’ve all opened while procrastinating homework or in the movie theater during the trailers is no longer free, unlike its Wordle and Connections counterparts. So, was this move genius or petty?

When I heard this news, I assumed that the motive behind the new paywall was to encourage more people to subscribe to the program and therefore read the articles. 

The free games are, or were, perfect to open while procrastinating (as guessing which types of pasta go together is much more entertaining than doing that one confusing case study). And, well, isn’t a paywall a great chance for the company to earn some extra money?

Yes, it is.

However, let’s take a look at the bigger picture of the accessibility of news these days, specifically regarding New York Times. In a time of economic crisis, news stories are becoming less and less accessible, though the need for an informed population keeps growing and growing. The current rate for a complete digital subscription to NYT is $25 every four weeks, which is $100 per month. Nobody should have to pay that to simply be aware of what’s going on in the world.

According to a study done by Pew Research Center, about 20% of U.S. adults use social media, specifically TikTok, as a news source.  The place where you can find a video of someone eating a Dubai chocolate Labubu, or an AI apple eating a slice of…itself—that’s considered a dependable source of news. In a time of misinformation and AI-heavy media, it’s even more significant that people are consuming reliable news and information.

Hence, trustworthy news should be more affordable and accessible to our society, and that can start with websites like the New York Times.  A New York Times subscription should be more budget friendly, in order to promote a conscious society.  

And, as a bonus, they should make the Mini-Crossword that we all know and love free again!