Why doesn't my Python article download script work for paid articles?

Wow, thanks for all the replies, y’all! I didn’t expect so many suggestions. I tried 12ft.io and it worked for some articles, but not all. I’ll definitely look into Selenium and Playwright—sounds like they might be the way to go.

Also, shoutout to whoever mentioned Archive.ph—that’s a lifesaver for some stuff. Still figuring out the whole session handling thing, but this gives me a lot to work with. Thanks again!

Hey, I had the same issue. The python article download doesn’t download paid articles because it’s not handling the paywall’s authentication. Most sites use cookies or tokens, and your script isn’t sending those.

You could try Selenium to simulate a logged-in session, but it’s a bit of a hassle. If you’re just experimenting, maybe check out Newspaper3k for free articles.