I like the new design, especially the more iPad-friendly article pages.
But what I am most happy about with the new design is that the NYT didn't break the backdoor into reading any article behind the paywall, if you're not a subscriber.
If you run into the paywall that blocks your reading an article, just fire up whatever Twitter app you use (I use Echofon), type the text of the article's headline into the search, search for it, you'll find tons of results almost always, and just click on one of those links.
Presto, you're now reading the article free and clear.
TL;DR If you arrive at a NYT article via a shared social link, you can bypass the subscription paywall.
Using Chrome, I configured nytimes.com cookies to "Clear on exit" from each browser session. Since I restart my browser at least once a day, and I only land on the New York Times as a result of links, I never hit the monthly limit of 10 free articles.
Open Settings, search for "content settings", click the Manage exceptions button, and add one for [*.]nytimes.com.
But what I am most happy about with the new design is that the NYT didn't break the backdoor into reading any article behind the paywall, if you're not a subscriber.
If you run into the paywall that blocks your reading an article, just fire up whatever Twitter app you use (I use Echofon), type the text of the article's headline into the search, search for it, you'll find tons of results almost always, and just click on one of those links.
Presto, you're now reading the article free and clear.
TL;DR If you arrive at a NYT article via a shared social link, you can bypass the subscription paywall.