Baltimore Sun to start paywall Oct. 10

Baltimore Sun to become the first Tribune paper to erect a paywall. Non-subscribers get free access to 15 pages a month. Otherwise, after an introductory offer of 99 cents for four weeks, it's $49.99 for 26 weeks (non-print subscribers) or $29.99 a year (for print subscribers.

http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/romenesko/147138/baltimore-sun-to-put-up-paywall-next-month/

 

It makes a ton of sense if you don't think about it.

 

Disappointed. Another paper behind a payroll. Now if I want to read a random Orioles story I can't if I've seen 15 pages in a month. Lame.

 

Paywall.

 

Yes, it is so lame and disappointing for newspapers to charge for their content in an effort to reverse an alarming downward trend in revenue that has led to massive layoffs and other budget cuts (i.e. furloughs) at papers across the country.

Lame.

 

Good idea, except for the charging subscribers an extra $30 to read the website. Really, that would just encourage me to cancel my subscription and pay the extra $20 for the online-only deal. That would seem to be a better buy.

Paywalls make perfect sense. But websites should be free to those who have already paid for the dead-tree edition. It's not right to make them pay twice.

 

I can see why they do that though. If they don't charge for online content from subscribers, then a subscriber can just share their information with all their friends and then it's free stuff for everybody. It's a stretch, though, I admit.

I'd just rather them get more ads and let the people read the article sans pay wall

 

Oh, is THAT all it takes?

Hey, everybody! Skip solved the issue of how to monetize the internet sites! CHEERS, SKIP!

 

Why can't the newspaper industry do something similar to what the group Radiohead did. Radiohead offered a CD to fans for however much they wanted to pay for it. They could, for instance, get it for free if they would like. In all, they actually made more per CD than they would have if it was sold in stores.

 

I admit I didn't think that one all the way through. It's been a long night