How to Read New York Times or Columbus Dispatch for Free (If You Live in Ohio)

New York Times

A couple weeks ago the Columbus Metropolitan Library posted a video on how to access the New York Times for free. If you have a Columbus library card you can access all of the NYT including Cooking, Games, Wirecutter, and The Athletic.

Steps for Accessing NYT

0. Prerequisite: You are an Ohio resident.

1. Get a Columbus Metropolitan Library card. You can apply for one online or get one in person at one of 23 local library branches.

2. Go to the Columbus Metropolitan Library website and search for “NYT” with “Research Tools”.

Columbus Library Main page

3. Click the link for New York Times All Access

New York Times All Access page

4. Redeem your NYT access code

New York Times access code

5. Login to your NYT account or create one if necessary

New York Times Login screen

6. Enjoy your free NYT!

7. As it states in the video, the code is only good for 24 hours so you’ll have to repeat the process again. You can make it easier by creating a shortcut on your iPhone or Android or bookmark it.

Columbus Dispatch

1. Assuming you already have a Columbus Library card. Go to the Columbus Metropolitan Library website and search for “Columbus Dispatch” with “Research Tools”.

Columbus Library Main page

2. Click the link for Columbus Dispatch Digital.

Columbus Dispatch digital page

3. There are a few ways to read the Dispatch. Click to access articles via web-source only (text), read non-web edition (text), or you can read a digital image of the paper as well. If there’s an interactive feature in an article, that may not be available via this method but it gets you 99% of the way there.

Columbus Dispatch historical and current page

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Columbus Downtown library atrium via Wikimedia

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