tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4343773643758367735.post1919463624697979862..comments2023-10-29T11:15:37.625-04:00Comments on sleeping alone and starting out early: to the Bloomington Herald-Times: drop the paywall. now.Jenna McWilliamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07767988531102621970noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4343773643758367735.post-53964449474850116862009-11-24T17:29:09.161-05:002009-11-24T17:29:09.161-05:00Christian & Ironicus,
This issue is perhaps th...Christian & Ironicus,<br />This issue is perhaps the toughest one for me, the one I struggle with the most as simultaneously a fan of the social revolution and a former newspaper reporter whose paper folded because of declining ad revenues. I'm also an enormous fan of civic engagement in all forms, and I believe we must foster this through connection with local issues and local politics along with dispersed, virtual, or anyway nonlocal issues and needs. <br /><br />But even given the dire state of print media, passing the extra cost to the consumer is most decidedly <b>not</b> the solution--at least, not the long-term solution. You do that long enough and you niche yourself right out of a market.Jenna McWilliamshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07767988531102621970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4343773643758367735.post-57079851819166926432009-11-24T16:40:23.760-05:002009-11-24T16:40:23.760-05:00This is a toughy. On the one hand, reporters like ...This is a toughy. On the one hand, reporters like to get paid for their work, so the paper needs to get money from some place to give to them, and since no one is buying dead tree versions of papers anymore, where that money comes from has become somewhat, well problematical.<br /><br />On the other hand, pay walls don't work because they essentially take the paper out of play reporting on a particular story and leave the field to the competition.<br /><br />Case in point, we went looking for your sexual assault story and found it free after oh, ten seconds:<br />http://www.theindychannel.com/news/21693701/detail.html<br /><br />So the paper succeeded in shooting itself in the foot.<br /><br />Walls work both ways you know.<br /><br />Oh, the Twitter thing? That's bogus. They need to have their account canceled for crap like that.Ironicus Maximushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09220762764339626768noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4343773643758367735.post-81751546438448094012009-11-24T08:30:10.572-05:002009-11-24T08:30:10.572-05:00In the short-term, it would be interesting to know...In the short-term, it would be interesting to know the percentage of the HT's subscribers are students. Probably not high - in which case they are missing out on free eyeballs and future subscribers. I doubt it would be difficult to make it free for students. There have been other web sites outside of the university who have integrated their authentication with the University system.Christian Briggshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07223245158646171336noreply@blogger.com