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| Is your local online newspaper free? https://gladerebooted.net/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=5127 |
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| Author: | LadyKate [ Mon Jan 03, 2011 11:47 am ] |
| Post subject: | Is your local online newspaper free? |
Our two local newspapers online used to be free...the one in the town next to us still is but the one in our city started charging about 6 months ago. You can view a handful of stories per month and then you are not allowed to see anything but the classifieds unless you purchase a subscription. Viewers and comments have dropped exponentially. Used to be we had a community forum and there would be 30-40 comments on any given news story...got to see inside info from people in the know and differences of opinion from diverse populations. Now, the most commented-on articles have only 2 comments, 3 at the most. Totally sucks. I thought the ad revenue was supposed to pay for the paper online?? |
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| Author: | LadyKate [ Mon Jan 03, 2011 11:50 am ] |
| Post subject: | |
PS--In case it wasn't obvious, most people these days in our area cannot afford a newspaper subscription on top of all their other bills, or they choose not to budget for one in lieu of something else. Charging for the newspaper online is taking away a community forum. |
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| Author: | Hopwin [ Mon Jan 03, 2011 12:24 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
Since 90% of the content in my local papers is crap they pull down and copy/paste from the AP I can't say I would get a subscription or view it online. |
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| Author: | LadyKate [ Mon Jan 03, 2011 12:29 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
Yeah, ours is almost entirely local news...we have a LOT of drama for a small city...there are robberies and gunshots and fist-fights with the mayor every week, hahaha! I can go to other sources for regular news but not local stuff. |
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| Author: | Colphax [ Mon Jan 03, 2011 12:33 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
All those stories gotta be written and edited by people employed by the paper. Newspapers do make money from ads...but they also make money from subscriptions. Problem is, ad revenue is down because subscription rates are down...because people are going online for free news. Many "newspapers" don't even exist anymore as actual papers...they only publish online because actually printing on paper doesn't make them any money. Free content online is killing the demand for printed media like magazines and newspapers. Free online content is so ingrained to condumers that most publishers are trying to find a new business model in order to maintain profitability. So you see some, like your hometown paper, that are trying to charge subscription fees for their online versions. |
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| Author: | LadyKate [ Mon Jan 03, 2011 12:38 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
Yeah, that is pretty much what the Editor tried to explain to everyone when they started this a few months ago...younger generations aren't buying papers at all and more and more people are switching to getting their news online. It just sucks because for a brief window there we were getting the news online for free AND there was a public forum in the comments section and we were getting to see sides of stories we would have never otherwise heard....now thats gone and you can pay every month to read a few local pieces but no one comments anymore because no one is there...no one wants to pay for it so they would rather just do without. I've read a few articles on suggestions for a new business model for newspapers, but haven't seen anything yet that would enable them to make money other than advertisements or pay walls. |
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| Author: | Kaffis Mark V [ Mon Jan 03, 2011 12:55 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Is your local online newspaper free? |
LadyKate wrote: I thought the ad revenue was supposed to pay for the paper online?? That's what several now-defunct web content publishers thought, too. The Internet is waking up to realize that ad-revenue isn't a magic money faucet. And, whoa! I thought Elmo lived in Pennsylvania.. there are gunshots at your mayor every week in your town? |
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| Author: | Aethien [ Mon Jan 03, 2011 12:57 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
Given that my local online paper is the LA Times, yeah, it's pretty much all free. Of course, I actually also subscribe. Four days a week. They are so desperate to increase their circulation that they called me last month to offer the other three days of the week for free, for a month "as a way of saying thank you." |
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| Author: | Lex Luthor [ Mon Jan 03, 2011 1:02 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
People will subscribe to printed newspapers until e-readers are so advanced that they are light, flimsy, and bendable. The "user interface" of normal paper, so to speak, is actually pretty good. |
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| Author: | LadyKate [ Mon Jan 03, 2011 1:09 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Is your local online newspaper free? |
Kaffis Mark V wrote: And, whoa! I thought Elmo lived in Pennsylvania.. there are gunshots at your mayor every week in your town? Hahahahahaha!  No its the thugs that are shooting each other and stabbing their girlfriends with scissors (yesterday's top story)....its the mayor and the councilmen getting into fistfights with each other during town hall meetings. (News a couple months ago.) |
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| Author: | FarSky [ Mon Jan 03, 2011 1:24 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
News...pa-per? |
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| Author: | Midgen [ Mon Jan 03, 2011 1:33 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
One of our two main newspapers recently went online only. So far, neither has a pay wall, although one of them (Seattle Times) put up a 'register to continue' wall after a certain number of clicks. After realizing that a large percentage of their readers navigated away after being confronted with the dialog box, they took it down. |
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| Author: | Kirra [ Mon Jan 03, 2011 3:16 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
It's too bad they can't find another way to support the local paper. You can go online and get world and national news, but the local stories are interesting because they are relevent for you. Especially when they saw the type of involvement that your paper had, Kate, too bad to take that away. Wonder how other bigger news organizations do it, sell Ads and cut staff to a minimum, since online wouldn't require that many employees? |
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| Author: | Lex Luthor [ Mon Jan 03, 2011 3:24 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
There is always a strong market demand for local stories, so they will be available through some medium, even if local papers die off in the short run due to ineffective monetary models. |
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| Author: | Rorinthas [ Mon Jan 03, 2011 4:22 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
No and Yes. Our Local Newspaper has some but not all if its content on its website for free |
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| Author: | Aizle [ Mon Jan 03, 2011 5:29 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
Find your local public radio or public TV site. But basically, you're asking to have your cake and eat it too. |
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| Author: | LadyKate [ Mon Jan 03, 2011 5:56 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: |
Aizle wrote: But basically, you're asking to have your cake and eat it too. I'm a woman. It's what we do. |
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| Author: | Hannibal [ Wed Jan 05, 2011 4:11 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Is your local online newspaper free? |
Kaffis Mark V wrote: And, whoa! I thought Elmo lived in Pennsylvania.. there are gunshots at your mayor every week in your town? No mayors here. I think the closest one is Nutter if Philly. Or Sweaty Eddie Rendell, since he acts more like a mayor of Philly/Pitt rather then the Gov. Thank god he's outta here. |
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| Author: | Elmarnieh [ Wed Jan 05, 2011 4:49 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
And yeah if I was shooting people I'd have the decency to put a two liter soda bottle over the end. No need to disturb honest citizens with trash removal. |
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| Author: | Rynar [ Wed Jan 05, 2011 5:05 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Re: |
LadyKate wrote: Aizle wrote: But basically, you're asking to have your cake and eat it too. I'm a woman. It's what we do. MYSOGENY!!!! |
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| Author: | Lonedar [ Thu Jan 06, 2011 9:57 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
Back to the original question... My hometown newspaper, online version, apparently lets you read the first paragraph or two of a story, but you need to $ubscribe to view more. Especially annoying since it has become not much more than an AP news feed except for local sports and one or two stories a day. Also used to be a daily and now takes Mondays off. |
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| Author: | LadyKate [ Thu Jan 06, 2011 10:53 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
We can view 10 stories a month on ours before having to pay $8 a month for a subscription. I just started using different browsers, hahaha! Skim the first paragraph on the news page and only click on the ones I read...with several different browsers I think I've found my loophole. |
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| Author: | darksiege [ Thu Jan 06, 2011 11:01 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
for only 8 bucks a month... that is a decent price. May be worth investing the money. /shrug |
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| Author: | Kaffis Mark V [ Thu Jan 06, 2011 11:30 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
If switching browsers is working for you, LK, you could also try clearing your cookies. |
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| Author: | LadyKate [ Fri Jan 07, 2011 8:50 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: |
Kaffis Mark V wrote: If switching browsers is working for you, LK, you could also try clearing your cookies. I know but I hate doing that, hahaha! I like to keep them until I absolutely have to clean them out. |
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