How about this?

[anonymousprick]

Why don't the people who run the newspaper industry just shut the hell up and put their content behind a pay wall, already?

Google didn't force newspapers to give away their content for free. The newspaper industry chose that path.

I know this generation of newspaper "leaders" seem to enjoy hand-wringing and their martyr complex above all else, but for all their bleating about Google, just like no one forced newspapers to give their content away for free, no one is stopping them from charging customers to access their websites, either.

So go ahead and do it.

 

[HorseWhipped]

Thanks for the original thoughts.

We'll get on it right away.

 

[anonymousprick]

Sorry horsewhipped. Didn't mean to cut through the 145,321 threads here that simply whine and cry about Google, instead of doing something about it. Carry on.

 

[WriteThinking]

Why don't the people who run the newspaper industry just shut the hell up and put their content behind a pay wall, already?

Google didn't force newspapers to give away their content for free. The newspaper industry chose that path.

I know this generation of newspaper "leaders" seem to enjoy hand-wringing and their martyr complex above all else, but for all their bleating about Google, just like no one forced newspapers to give their content away for free, no one is stopping them from charging customers to access their websites, either.

So go ahead and do it.

Um, let me guess: Anonymousprick must have clicked on that "Journalism Is Dead" ad/story at the top of the home page for this site.

 

[Frank_Ridgeway]

Most of the people in charge, who are middle-age or older, are obsessed with not being perceived as old and they defecate in their pleated khakis every time an "expert" shrieks that they'd lose "traffic" if they put content behind a pay wall.

 

[Joe Williams]

Most of the people in charge, who are middle-age or older, are obsessed with not being perceived as old and they defecate in their pleated khakis every time an "expert" shrieks that they'd lose "traffic" if they put content behind a pay wall.

Laughing at this, through all the tears. It's so very f---ing true. :'( ;D

This is how you get editors signing off on someone tweeting from a funeral.

The absolute worst thing you can call an athlete is "fag." Not "c---sucker" or "motherf---er" or any of that stuff. And the worst thing you can call some middle-aged newsroom person is "old." Especially the ones in charge -- they'll recoil, even as they hold age against underlings who are the same age or even younger.

Three-letter words are underrated.

 

[mustangj17]

Why don't the people who run the newspaper industry just shut the hell up and put their content behind a pay wall, already?

Google didn't force newspapers to give away their content for free. The newspaper industry chose that path.

I know this generation of newspaper "leaders" seem to enjoy hand-wringing and their martyr complex above all else, but for all their bleating about Google, just like no one forced newspapers to give their content away for free, no one is stopping them from charging customers to access their websites, either.

So go ahead and do it.

Did you know Jerome Bettis is from Detroit?

 

[sportschick]

Most of the people in charge, who are middle-age or older, are obsessed with not being perceived as old and they defecate in their pleated khakis every time an "expert" shrieks that they'd lose "traffic" if they put content behind a pay wall.

This may be the funniest thing posted on this site in the last year.

 

[RickStain]

Step 1: Acquire web traffic
Step 2: ???
Step 3: Profit

 

[Fredrick]

Most of the people in charge, who are middle-age or older, are obsessed with not being perceived as old and they defecate in their pleated khakis every time an "expert" shrieks that they'd lose "traffic" if they put content behind a pay wall.

Very funny and very true.
Hell of a post!
These higher ups need to read this and realize it's true.
Great original post as well. Newspapers buried themselves.

 

[Boomer7]

Step 1: Acquire web traffic
Step 2: ???
Step 3: Profit

The Underpants Gnomes concept seems to be gaining traction, what, 10 years after that episode aired?

 

[txsportsscribe]

Great original post as well. Newspapers buried themselves.

giving an attaboy to your own sock puppet?

 

[anonymousprick]

So why don't they do it? What is actually keeping the people who run newspapers from just putting their pnline content behind a pay wall? Sorry if posing this question doesn't win me any points with those who are apparently grading threads for originality.

 

[RickStain]

So why don't they do it?

Several have tried. Readers don't buy enough to make it wortwhile.

 

[anonymousprick]

So why don't they do it?

Several have tried. Readers don't buy enough to make it wortwhile.

Fair enough. But given that, shouldn't they stop whining about Google if they're going to just continue to give Google access to their product for free?

 

[RickStain]

So why don't they do it?

Several have tried. Readers don't buy enough to make it wortwhile.

Fair enough. But given that, shouldn't they stop whining about Google if they're going to just continue to give Google access to their product for free?

They are positioning themselves to try to force some way of making Google or ISPs pay them a fee.

It's silly and it won't work, but the industry is in its death throes and you are going to see a lot of flailing about.