Newspapers Online: Why Information Will No Longer Be Free

The Columbia Journalism Review ^ | January/February 2003 | Michael Scherer

[1Old Pro]

Online news junkies will increasingly have to give up money or personal information to get their previously free fix.

Doubtful. When the Schenectady Gazette went to paid subscription services their readers declined by 94%. It's just not worth paying for and people won't.

[1Old Pro]

Why pay to subsribe to the Albany Times-Union when you can get the Washington Post, NY Times, or National Review On-Line?

The Albany Times Union still gets read online because they charge what it's worth, nothing.

Conversely, The Schenectady Gazette just went to a paid service and lost 94% of their readers.....they all went to the Times Union.

[jackbill]

The Boston Herald started to charge for reading their columnists several months ago. The only one that I miss is Howie Carr.

[dangus]

>>The Albany Times Union still gets read online because they charge what it's worth, nothing.

>>Conversely, The Schenectady Gazette just went to a paid service and lost 94% of their readers.....they all went to the Times Union.

I didn't know about either planning on charging fees. I just recall the Times-Union as a miserably liberal paper which relied on Reuters and AP for every bit of its non-local reporting and which had only about 2 pages of local news... and even then relied on AP stories when it was anything worth being covered by AP.

But I'm glad to hear there are stories like the the Schnectady Gazette's getting out there to serve as a warning. Burn, Schnectady, burn!

[GatekeeperBookman]

USA is thrown at the door of every business class motel room. It is 'read' by many hundreds of thousands of dolts who think it a real newspaper. Years ago, when it was new, one of my kids asked seriously if it was propaganda from the Left. I think it still is.