Flooded town's paper behind paywall

Good for them.

The Providence Journal is gearing to go to a paywall soon and I absolutely can't wait until they do as they're the only "real" daily paper in this state and people are going to crap their pants.

If this ultimately leads to my company putting up a paywall, I'd be a big fan.

 

This is my former employer as well. Their stance on their internet presence has always been kind of weird. Their philosophy, according to folks who still work there, is to not put anything on the web site that does not appear in the paper. There's absolutely no ads on the web site, just the stories and notices that appear in the paper. And while you can download a PDF of the entire paper, you can also click on links to read the stories. It's really an interesting business model, especially for a paper whose circulation has fallen almost 3,000-4,000 in a one-paper town in the two-plus years since I was laid off in a mass cut of the sports department.

I've been following the arguments on the PE's facebook page that Copperpot posted, and the guy is just a moron. He thinks people outside of Columbia County, or Eastern Pennsylvania are just dying to know how much the town is suffering. I hate to tell you, but unless you have family in the town or it's your hometown, nobody gives a rat's ass about record flooding in Bloomsburg, Pa.

 

They don't give the printed paper away for free. Why should they suddenly give it away online for free?

 

No reason why it should be free. A newspaper's commodity is information. Kroger doesn't give away free milk and eggs so, why should the newspaper give away free information?

 

Word for freaking word.

Were these freeloading commentors also going down to the local Wal-Mart, expecting free food and bottled water in this time of emergency? I guarantee they weren't. There's no difference.

 

+1

 

I disagree, because a newspaper is also a community resource.

Certainly a lot of other places -- at least up here -- gave stuff away to those who were impacted by the flooding.

I would have done it for a couple of days, though, that's it.

For a couple of days last week, Rutland could not deliver for a couple days and they opened up their pay wall. That is a slightly different situation, and I believe they put the wall back up as soon as deliveries commenced.

Schiezainc: Been a big week for that, what with the Globe going pay wall, too.

Westerly folks are screwed. No free Journal now, no free Sun for a long time and as of last week, no free Day, either.

 

agreed...pay walls are necessary or apps for the Nook/Kindle users. We must value our product enough to require people to pay for it.

That letter writer's complaint shows that there is a demand for the product, why he feels he's obligated to a free product is beyond me.

I always use this analogy...
If I walk into the supermarket and see a free sample table handing out full-size boxes of Cheerios...I'm going to grab my free box and skip the aisle. Why would I pay for something if you're handing it to me no charge?

General Mills might feed a lot of people that way, but they aren't going to stay in business long unless people are buying their cereal.

 

The grocery store is a community resource, so is the cable TV provider or the bank.

 

If you think the paper should give away its information for free, I assume you also think that the reporters should be volunteering their time and turning down pay, as a public service.

And by extension, I assume you'd say the same for police, firefighters, utility workers, etc.

That news you want as a free public resource? It doesn't gather itself. If you want free information, log onto the town council's website. I'm sure they'll have a poorly written PR or two that'll tell you exactly what's going on.

 

This. I'm sick of newspaper companies racking up OT and ungodly expenses and then giving away the news for free during a huge news event. Marketing folks will tell you that it's good for "branding" because it's an opportunity to show readers how indespensable we are. I say it just shows how damned needy we are, because there's not one damned person who will say, "Damn, that paper kicked some ass during the flood. I'm gonna subscribe for a year!"

 

You think that your job at a bigger market will come because people see your work for free online?

Welcome to the biz, kid, you've got a lot to learn.