Have you always wanted to peruse around NYT Now for free? Well, today’s your day!

The blizzard bearing down on the northeast has led the New York Times to offer free articles through the mobile app.

A message announcing: “We’re giving everyone free access to NYT Now during the Northeast Blizzard” appeared this morning.

The app is also promoting stories related to the blizzard, denoting them with an orange dot.

NYT Now is intended to be a faster and more streamlined way to get the news, with content “handpicked and summarized by our editors,” according to its website.

The app is a free download available only in the Apple Store and costs $8 a month.

Insider Take:

If you’ve been thinking about downloading the app, do so now before they reinstitute the article limit!

This is a great move by the New York Times to capitalize on a news story to promote their app. While they may cannibalize some of their subscription revenue for the time period in which access is free, they also know that people will be turning to them for information on the blizzard and the nature of the app’s content promotion by the editors makes it a powerful tool for disseminating timely information to subscribers. This is good PR even though they may lose subscription income in the short-term. But they also know that the alternative – keeping the paywall up during a weather emergency – would likely foster bad blood, resulting in a loss of subscribers in the long-term.