News. People Think It's Their Right To Get It For Free

[Pete Incaviglia]

So, our newspaper is upgrading/changing/modifying its servers or website or something. At any rate, it's messing up our homepage something fierce. Not all stories are ending up there. Some sections haven't been updated for days.

The angry emails from people are killing me.

"When are you going to update your website?!"

"Your website is the same as it was yesterday!"

Like, if you're in town, and some are because I recognize a couple names, buy the damn paper. If you're out of town, what makes you think you deserve the news for free?

It's the same old question(s), I know. But man it kills me.

 

[partain]

There was a Zits cartoon about this a year or two ago. The teenage son can't believe a free website hasn't updated it's content in the last five minutes. The dad doesn't share his son's indignation, even pointing out that its free.

Funny how folks will tell you they don't need the paper or even the paper's website because they can find what they need in so many places online. Then the site goes down for a few hours and there's a huge uproar. Maybe folks should stop and think about the content they'll lose if they don't support their local newspapers.

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

There have been multiple items posted on Slashdot — the geek news/discussion site — about news companies ramping up plans to put up pay walls.

Most of the comments have something to do with, "No! We willz not pai for teh newz! Teh infformashun must be free! You kannut copyright events!"

You can copyright your reportage of those events. Perfectly legal. However, if you try to tell the Slashdotters that, your comment gets modded "-1 (Troll)." [/TheVoiceOfExperience]

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Like, if you're in town, and some are because I recognize a couple names, buy the damn paper. If you're out of town, what makes you think you deserve the news for free?

I would presume it would be newspapers' decision to train people for the past decade or more to expect free news.

 

[JakeandElwood]

Yeah, that wasn't very smart.

 

[Guy_Incognito]

If you can't find it in the Constitution, you're just not looking hard enough.

 

[jlee]

Does your Web site have a note or a banner saying something to the gist of "Sorry, we're upgrading and things are screwed up for a few days"? If not, people are understandably peeved.

 

[txsportsscribe]

understandable peeved about a freebie?

 

[Mystery Meat II]

But most news IS free, or at least subsidized so that people don't pay out of pocket for it -- radio, TV, most if not all websites. Newspapers (the black and white and red all over kind, not the sites they run) are the ONLY medium that charge for breaking news content. I don't think *we're* training anyone to go for the free stuff, honestly.

 

[Smasher_Sloan]

Put a 10-cent posting fee here and we'll be having a farewell party for the poster known as Dooley Womack.

 

[SF_Express]

understandable peeved about a freebie?

Absolutely, Tex.

As noted eight million times here, any other notion has left the building.

If a newspaper is doing business and considers the web an important part of its strategy, it has to be updated to the minute, all the time.

You can't say, "Well, the web is an important part of our strategy" one minute and then, when your site breaks, say, "Hey, what do you expect, it's free?"

That's going to be more and more true as web advertising grows (if it does).

 

[Stitch]

Too bad Web advertising won't grow if they think a great revenue stream is putting "Print ads on the Web - click here." Or archive subscription plans that make little money.

 

[mustangj17]

Too bad Web advertising won't grow if they think a great revenue stream is putting "Print ads on the Web - click here." Or archive subscription plans that make little money.

Web advertising will not grow because nobody clicks on banner ads.

When was the last time you clicked on an advertisement on this site? I never have. And I'm on this damn thing every day.

 

[Mystery Meat II]

That's the big problem with web advertising: people don't trust it, even if it's a legitimate enterprise. Too many adware/spyware/malware/viruses spread through disreputable links that it makes people wary -- the pop-up blockers didn't gain popularity because people didn't want to see Best Buy or Amazon ads, they were there to keep the "1,001 LOLS A DAY" and "TAKE OUR SURVEY AND WIN A PLAYSTATION 2" ads.

That's probably a part of what made door-to-door selling go the way of the do-do.

 

[joe_schmoe]

SHWEWWW. When I saw the thread title I thought it was going to be another thead on Healthcare.

 

[Babs]

That's probably a part of what made door-to-door selling go the way of the do-do.

Pretty sure door-to-door selling went away because women entered the workforce and were no longer home during the day to answer the door.

 

[Stitch]

Too bad Web advertising won't grow if they think a great revenue stream is putting "Print ads on the Web - click here." Or archive subscription plans that make little money.

Web advertising will not grow because nobody clicks on banner ads.

When was the last time you clicked on an advertisement on this site? I never have. And I'm on this damn thing every day.

It's not about banner ads anymore. How many newspapers charge per click? It's all about impressions.

 

[goalmouth]

Web advertising will not grow because nobody clicks on banner ads.

When was the last time you clicked on an advertisement on this site? I never have. And I'm on this damn thing every day.

Too true, which is why a key metric for advertisers and publishers is whether readers even remember SEEING a particular ad in the past 30 days.

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

Too bad Web advertising won't grow if they think a great revenue stream is putting "Print ads on the Web - click here." Or archive subscription plans that make little money.

Web advertising will not grow because nobody clicks on banner ads.

When was the last time you clicked on an advertisement on this site? I never have. And I'm on this damn thing every day.

Advertisements on this site? No idea what you're talking about. :D

 

[Mystery Meat II]

That's probably a part of what made door-to-door selling go the way of the do-do.

Pretty sure door-to-door selling went away because women entered the workforce and were no longer home during the day to answer the door.

That might be part of it, but I'd be willing to wager at least as big a part was that door-to-door salespeople got a bad rap between overaggressive missionaries, overaggressive security system salespeople and general-purpose shysters. The bad drives out the good, and now if someone random comes up to your door, your first inclination probably isn't to buy what they're selling (do Girl Scouts even go door-to-door anymore?)