Flooded town's paper behind paywall

[copperpot]

So, my former employer, the Press Enterprise in Bloomsburg, Pa., has never had a traditional news website. Instead, all it features is a PDF copy of the day's paper, and you have to pay to access it. I don't know that anyone ever paid much attention to it until now. The town was hit extremely hard by flooding, and the PE opened its site for a few days, largely because it couldn't deliver to a lot of its customers. It's closed again, and there's been a big outcry on Facebook and elsewhere that it should again make its content free for the good of the community. A weekly subscription is $2.50, by the way.

Here's a sample of the arguments:
"The bottom line here is that the town of Bloomsburg cannot distribute information to the national media or corporate donors when all of the news stories are behind a pay wall. The media ecology has changed and content is shared in ways well beyond Reuters and the Associated Press. Locked content is dead content. And Bloomsburg will suffer because of it. We have talked to several organizations personally who want to know more about what is happening in Bloomsburg and we have NOTHING we can link them to. I hate to be blunt, but I am pretty sure national corporations and media entities are not going to subscribe to a PDF of the Bloomsburg, PA newspaper so they can figure out what is happening there."

"The community deserves to be able to have free access during this time of tragedy."

"It would be great if you would open the paper up again, there are many people out of the area that would love to be informed."

"I had to read about the Bloomsburg University football team helping with flood recovery efforts in the Centre Daily Times while your paper remains closed to the public and essentially non-existent online. I feel embarrassed for you."

You know what I feel? I feel proud that the paper has kept itself relevant by NOT giving everything away. I think it's ridiculous to act like there's some sort of moral obligation to disseminate information for free. There are government agencies and others to do that. A newspaper's a business, and the PE's still trying to run like one. Good for them.

Thoughts?

 

[KP]

If that's the model they are going with then they need to hold firm. Amazing how people take the paper for granted until they actually want something out of it - and where they used to simply run to the store and plunk down the 50 cents at the corner store expect everything to be sitting there on the web at their convenience.
Try doing that to a tax accountant on April 15 and see how they like it.

 

[LongTimeListener]

If they used the floods as an opportunity to install the paywall, they'd be dicks. But this is their well-established business. I hope it works for them. Not sure if it will, but they have to try and they have to stick with it.

 

[Raiders]

In times of emergency, vital information should be free of charge.

 

[Point of Order]

So, my former employer, the Press Enterprise in Bloomsburg, Pa., has never had a traditional news website. Instead, all it features is a PDF copy of the day's paper, and you have to pay to access it. I don't know that anyone ever paid much attention to it until now. The town was hit extremely hard by flooding, and the PE opened its site for a few days, largely because it couldn't deliver to a lot of its customers. It's closed again, and there's been a big outcry on Facebook and elsewhere that it should again make its content free for the good of the community. A weekly subscription is $2.50, by the way.

Here's a sample of the arguments:
"The bottom line here is that the town of Bloomsburg cannot distribute information to the national media or corporate donors when all of the news stories are behind a pay wall. The media ecology has changed and content is shared in ways well beyond Reuters and the Associated Press. Locked content is dead content. And Bloomsburg will suffer because of it. We have talked to several organizations personally who want to know more about what is happening in Bloomsburg and we have NOTHING we can link them to. I hate to be blunt, but I am pretty sure national corporations and media entities are not going to subscribe to a PDF of the Bloomsburg, PA newspaper so they can figure out what is happening there."

"The community deserves to be able to have free access during this time of tragedy."

"It would be great if you would open the paper up again, there are many people out of the area that would love to be informed."

"I had to read about the Bloomsburg University football team helping with flood recovery efforts in the Centre Daily Times while your paper remains closed to the public and essentially non-existent online. I feel embarrassed for you."

You know what I feel? I feel proud that the paper has kept itself relevant by NOT giving everything away. I think it's ridiculous to act like there's some sort of moral obligation to disseminate information for free. There are government agencies and others to do that. A newspaper's a business, and the PE's still trying to run like one. Good for them.

Thoughts?

A good time to test the NPR/donor model of media revenue.

$2.50 per week
x 15,000 population
____________________________

Agree to open the site for 6 weeks for as soon as you receive donations totaling $225,000.

 

[Armchair_QB]

In times of emergency, vital information should be free of charge.

I guess the question is, is this still a time of emergency? And who gets to decide when it's over?

They already had a pay wall up. They opened the site up to everybody while they were unable to do home delivery. Once home delivery was resumed they were under no obligation to keep the site open.

Now if you will excuse me I need to go browse the Chicago Tribune, Minneapolis Star-Tribune and the DMN...

 

[LongTimeListener]

In times of emergency, vital information should be free of charge.

A lot of people probably sustained car damage and couldn't get to work. The car dealerships should have let them come in and borrow one free of charge for a month.

 

[RickStain]

It's always easy to say what other people should do with their money and stuff.

 

[holy bull]

Here's a sample of the arguments:
"The bottom line here is that the town of Bloomsburg cannot distribute information to the national media or corporate donors when all of the news stories are behind a pay wall. The media ecology has changed and content is shared in ways well beyond Reuters and the Associated Press. Locked content is dead content. And Bloomsburg will suffer because of it. We have talked to several organizations personally who want to know more about what is happening in Bloomsburg and we have NOTHING we can link them to. I hate to be blunt, but I am pretty sure national corporations and media entities are not going to subscribe to a PDF of the Bloomsburg, PA newspaper so they can figure out what is happening there."

"I hate to be blunt," but this argument is so full of **** I want to puke. "Locked" content? It ain't locked. Copperpot, you should be proud that the paper made a generous gesture, albeit one partially driven by their own temporary distribution handicap, but ultimately stuck to its guns.

I'm a little biased, since we reverted to a paywall/free hybrid two years ago after being completely free on the web site for awhile. You can't give it away. At least we can't.

 

[baddecision]

That argument maker is full of ****. He/she should embrace the "new media ecology" and start his own blog to cover Bloomsburg flood events for free.

 

[wicked]

You're telling me none of the stations from Harrisburg, Scranton or State College are covering this?

Oh, wait, you want to read something beyond three grafs on their websites or hear more in-depth details than provided in a 90-second report. Guess what? You're gonna pay for it.

 

[Stitch]

If people need the news, they should pay for it. For me, buying the local paper is a choice, and I choose not to buy. I "need" electricity, so I pay for it. I "need" TV, so I pay for DirecTV. I "need" etc., etc., etc., and I choose to pay for it.

 

[schiezainc]

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.

 

[RedHotChiliPrepper]

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.

 

[Monday Morning Sportswriter]

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

 

[Bamadog]

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?

 

[BurnsWhenIPee]

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.

 

[Tarheel316]

If that's the model they are going with then they need to hold firm. Amazing how people take the paper for granted until they actually want something out of it - and where they used to simply run to the store and plunk down the 50 cents at the corner store expect everything to be sitting there on the web at their convenience.
Try doing that to a tax accountant on April 15 and see how they like it.

+1

 

[BillyT]

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.

 

[flexmaster33]

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.