FT, Foursquare and Me

So - the FT is pulling down its paywall for Foursquare users - paidContent:

The Financial Times’ metered online paywall system is considered one of the more successful models, but a new partnership with location-based social net Foursquare is aimed at younger readers who are most resistant to paywalls. The partnership will launch sometime in the next few weeks, Business Insider reports.

The partnership is limited to specific areas on Foursquare, which lets users “check in” at various locations via their mobile phones, alerting users they’re connected with. The FT has chosen a number of cafes and businesses situated within business districts and schools such as Columbia, Harvard and the London School of Economic, among others. When Foursquare users check in at a designated spot, they can earn points that will ultimately unlock the FT.com’s online subscriptions, which can run from $183.04 for 52 weeks (or $3.59 per week) for unlimited access to $299 ($5.75 per week) for mobile access included as part of a premium sub.

At the risk of being seen as un-hip, this made me grumpy. Why? Because I'm curmudgeonly enough to think Foursquare is the sort of service run for oversharing jer....not your usual FT demographic - so I won't use it. My immediate reaction is that I am probably more the FT's natural reader demographic, so what's My Deal then?

It's probably not totally logical, but its an immediate gut reaction (its that "Hey! that's not Fair! behavioural psychology thing I guess).

So, FT, what deal do will give your "natural" user base to earn points to get behind the firewall for free?

I can't believe the Foursquare/FT demographic is that great - I originally wrote 1 in a million tongue in cheek, but Vuk Trifkovic's note about c 1 in 5 of his 4Sq followees being FT-able made me think about it a bit - 1 in 10, 100, 1,000, or 10,000, or 100,000 or 1 million? I'd probably plump for 1 in 1,000 as a guesstimate based on observed FoursSquare users and their behaviour on Twitter