JSOnline is becoming a paid site (update, reply #73: so is Madison dot com)

[fondybrewfan]

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel going to a PPV site. You get to view 20 articles free per month but beyond that you have to buy a subscription. What a joke; I know it isn't a lot but I am still not going to pay to read an article online when there are plenty of other outlets I can use to get my information

[Invader3K]

That's the way papers are going. Print newspapers are going to be dead for the most part in probably ten more years.

[thebruce44]

Looks like ill be getting my news from the bloggers who usually scoop Tom anyway.

[hawing]

I hate to say, fondy, you may want to get used to sites charging for information. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/indifferent.gif

My related "bug" is that upon learning of the JS paywall, I considered a Sunday-only subscription. The Journal Sentinel has better coupons than the State Journal and more Brewers coverage by a long, long shot. I followed the "easy" 1-2-3 steps on the JS website to subscribe and got an error message saying that my "change of address request" could not be processed.

 

My guess is the automatic system doesn't work for locations outside southeast Wisconsin. I'm confident that the JS delivers to Madison because our neighbor two houses down gets the print edition every day. Yet, since step 1 was "enter your zip code," you'd think I'd have been stopped there if my zip code wasn't valid for their system. Now I don't know if they have my credit card information or not. My email inquiry was met with a "we'll respond within 48 hours" and the 48 hours is almost up.

 

For what it's worth, JSOnline's paywall FAQs (which I curiously can't locate from their home page this morning, and I'm not going to waste one of my 20 looking for it) suggested that content reached through a Facebook or Twitter link would not count against the "free" 20.

 

Edit: Found it - thanks, Google:

If you enter JSOnline.com through a link on Facebook or Twitter, you may read that single article and it will not count against the monthly limit of 20 articles.

[Patrick425]

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel going to a PPV site. You get to view 20 articles free per month but beyond that you have to buy a subscription. What a joke; I know it isn't a lot but I am still not going to pay to read an article online when there are plenty of other outlets I can use to get my information

Yeah but don't you usually visit JSonline for local news? I don't know that there are "plenty" of other sites for that. There are the local news stations I guess, but I never really liked any of their sites.

 

 

[brettac1]

I had already been paying for Packer Insider for Bob McGinn's stuff, so I guess I am in the clear on this one.

[RockCoCougars]

The Star Tribune in MSP started doing this a few months ago. I only visit the site by accident now. I can understand the motivation behind charging for content, especially after both sites tried the full court press of 'in your face' banner ads first... but at the same time, it's hard for me to justify paying for something that I've gotten for free for years. Yes, I'm cheap.

[fondybrewfan]

Getting local news coverage might be a little problematic but I think getting my sports fix from somewhere else should be easy enough. My local paper, FDL Reporter, is basically worthless so I'll have to do a little research to find some other decent local news carriers.

 

20 articles a month sure won't go very far; during Brewers season I would probably be there in less than a week.

[patrickgpe]

it is only 99 cents a week for full online content, i may subscribe during baseball season but even though its not alot of money i don't see the point of doing it.

[trwi7]

hawing wrote:

---

Edit: Found it - thanks, Google:

If you enter JSOnline.com through a link on Facebook or Twitter, you may read that single article and it will not count against the monthly limit of 20 articles.

And this is what makes this whole thing stupid. If you read JSOnline, you obviously have the internet, so why not make a twitter account or whatever, follow your favorite writers and wait until they post their articles on twitter? Unless they aren't going to post them on twitter anymore or are going to limit how much they post on twitter. That's what I'm going to do, just use my twitter account for these articles.

[craigharmann]

My local paper, FDL Reporter, is basically worthless

Good to see things haven't changed in the past 10 years since I've read the Reporter.

 

Although, it was a better option than the Beaver Dam Daily Citizen or the weekly Mayville News. But those were the choices!

[JimH5]

I don't have a problem with people getting paid. Nobody likes to give away their work for free.

 

I do wish the Journal/Sentinel did more local news. There isn't really any go-to site to get SE Wisconsin stuff, and that would be a natural fit for the local paper.

[hawing]

hawing wrote:

---

Edit: Found it - thanks, Google:

If you enter JSOnline.com through a link on Facebook or Twitter, you may read that single article and it will not count against the monthly limit of 20 articles.

And this is what makes this whole thing stupid. If you read JSOnline, you obviously have the internet, so why not make a twitter account or whatever, follow your favorite writers and wait until they post their articles on twitter? Unless they aren't going to post them on twitter anymore or are going to limit how much they post on twitter. That's what I'm going to do, just use my twitter account for these articles. I too wondered whether this will change how much JSOnline content gets linked on Twitter or Facebook. They may be banking on readers' inability to resist temptation when they go to a 'free' story via link and then see a bunch of teasers for all kinds of other stuff.

 

I am fully confident that the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison will be watching carefully to see how the paywall plays out in Milwaukee.

 

Has anyone here subscribed to the online content? If so, do you see fewer ads while you're logged in?

[RockCoCougars]

To me, it seems that the whole 'newspaper' business model is a dying breed- internet or not. They have to be getting slaughtered by Craigslist, etc. for classified revenue and I would guess that circulation is way down. With most news sites, I don't get why you would buy the physical newspaper when most of the content is available online much sooner. The only people that I know of who still subscribe to newspapers are either coupon clippers or are older and not 'wired'. A buck a week seems a little steep to me. I'd think that they'd get many more paid subscribers if they reduced the price and/or made it an impulse type buy 'app'. The problem with that would be that there would be no constant revenue stream that a weekly subscription would bring. I've seen the newspapers take a lot of different approaches (withholding 'premium' content, holding articles back a day, a barrage of banner/pop up ads, charging for content, etc.), but based on the 'strategy changes' that I've seen over the years, I don't think any of them will stem the death knell of the traditional newspaper as has existed in the past.

[Godspeed]

I subscribe to the Sunday paper (Wednesday's paper also gets delivered for some reason) for about $1/week, an insignificant dollar amount that's dwarfed by the amount we save with the weekly coupons that come with it. That was a pretty compelling argument fur us to shell out the cash, especially when money was tight.

 

Like the surly, grizzled, and ancient JimH5 http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif, I have no problem with this. It's kind of ridiculous to expect them to just give away content.

[patrickgpe]

To me, it seems that the whole 'newspaper' business model is a dying breed- internet or not. They have to be getting slaughtered by Craigslist, etc. for classified revenue and I would guess that circulation is way down. With most news sites, I don't get why you would buy the physical newspaper when most of the content is available online much sooner. The only people that I know of who still subscribe to newspapers are either coupon clippers or are older and not 'wired'. A buck a week seems a little steep to me. I'd think that they'd get many more paid subscribers if they reduced the price and/or made it an impulse type buy 'app'. The problem with that would be that there would be no constant revenue stream that a weekly subscription would bring. I've seen the newspapers take a lot of different approaches (withholding 'premium' content, holding articles back a day, a barrage of banner/pop up ads, charging for content, etc.), but based on the 'strategy changes' that I've seen over the years, I don't think any of them will stem the death knell of the traditional newspaper as has existed in the past.

that may all be true, but there isn't really anywhere else to get local news. jsonline was nice to check occasionally during the day to see if anything huge was going on. The odd part is that you will still be able to view the page which means you can still see the headlines and the leads just not read the whole article more than 20 times a month. that may be enough for me.

[bjkrautk]

I might 'borrow' my parents address / subscription later on, but for now, I'm content to not click on their story links.

 

 

Would it be horribly cynical for me to create a 2nd twitter account, for the sole purpose of tweeting a link to the stories I actually want to read?

[hawing]

Would it be horribly cynical for me to create a 2nd twitter account, for the sole purpose of tweeting a link to the stories I actually want to read?

I don't know about horribly cynical, but I wonder if that would achieve the goal you want. My interpretation of that sort-of loophole was that you could follow links from a JS Twitter/Facebook presence (so you'd still be kind-of committing to them first, at least with your handle/email). If I link a JS Online story on my Twitter, and you follow me, I don't know whether that would count against the 20.

 

And although no one asked, it has now been more than 48 hours and I've not heard back from the JS regarding my subscription attempt. I feel like such a valued potential customer.

[thebruce44]

Does this effect the Blogs as well?

[thebruce44]

I don't have a problem with people getting paid. Nobody likes to give away their work for free.

 

I do wish the Journal/Sentinel did more local news. There isn't really any go-to site to get SE Wisconsin stuff, and that would be a natural fit for the local paper.

What am I missing? Why can't people get local news from sites like WTMJ or Fox6? Sports was the only real reason to go to JSOnline for me in the past.

[homer]

I get all my news from Brewerfan.net.

[jerichoholicninja]

Really all this is going to do is drive more news seeking traffic to social media. I can't remember the last breaking news story I got from a news website. I either get a text from someone or see it on Facebook.

[Funketown]

I enjoy getting my lineups 3-4 hours before the games from Tom H, so I'm hoping I can still access his blog without paying a fee.

 

I hadn't thought about it, but I can't remember the last event I didn't first hear about through facebook or via text. Weird.

[JimH5]

Like the surly, grizzled, and ancient JimH5 http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif, I have no problem with this. It's kind of ridiculous to expect them to just give away content.

Three adjectives. I'm honored!

 

The Wall Street Journal has paid content, and they seem to make it work. It's unique, however, in that it's a national paper with an affluent readership.

 

Newsday tried it and failed a laughable failure.

http://www.observer.com/2010/media/after-three-months-only-35-subscriptions-newsdays-web-site

 

I'm a dinosaur in that I am a 7-day subscriber to the Journal-Sentinel. There are some days when I spend less than 10 minutes with the paper, but I like to read it for events calendars and features.

 

I think people will pay for content, but it's got to be unique and specific to the audience. We'll see if they can pull it off.

[trwi7]

Funketown wrote:

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I enjoy getting my lineups 3-4 hours before the games from Tom H, so I'm hoping I can still access his blog without paying a fee.

It includes the blogs too but you don't even need the blog for the lineups. TH or McCalvy usually tweets the lineup at the same time they post the blog or before.