Changes are on the way … To pay or not to pay

We received a memo from Media News Group Executives outlining future plans that will likely end free access to our newspaper websites. You may have to pay a subscription fee or register to gain access. How this affects the blog, I do not know. However, here is an important part of the memo that reads, “ We will begin to move away from putting all of our newspaper content online for free. Instead, we will explore a variety of premium offerings that apply real value to our print content. We are not trying to invent new premium products, but instead tell our existing print readers that what they are buying has real value, and to our online audience (who don’t buy the print edition), that if you want access to all online content, you are going to have to register, and/or pay. If a non-subscriber wants the newspaper content in its entirety online, they will be directed to some sort of registration or pay vehicle (and if they are a print subscriber, they will have full access at no charge). To be clear, the brand value proposition to the consumer is that the newspaper is a product, whether in print or online, which must be paid for. In other words, you can help yourself and help us all out by going back to the old days of home delivery, it’s cheap, and will give you access to everything else for free. You can read the memo by clicking the link above to learn more. There is no set date when this will all begin, but I’m curious, how do you feel about these changes?

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