No, this is completely wrong. This is suggesting that having fewer people reading your newspaper is not a bad thing, when it is exactly the opposite. You want more people to read your newspaper, and there is a indirect cost to losing those readers.
One of the main things you are losing is influence, all those readers have gone to another paper to get their news.
Nevertheless an interesting experiment, we will see how long the times keeps this up.
One respect in which more readers is a bad thing is hosting costs, which the OA doesn't mention.
Can anybody who knows more about this than me shed any light here? How much more does it cost to serve millions of "freeloading" users per month vs the 100,000 they're dealing with now?
One of the main things you are losing is influence, all those readers have gone to another paper to get their news.
Nevertheless an interesting experiment, we will see how long the times keeps this up.