time to pay for the sunpaper online

[ChromaKelly]

Until they realize the error of the short sightedness...
all pages with the term baltimoresun.com in the url (forums, blogs, as well as the news itself) will be limited to 15 views per month unless you pay for online access. That is a total of 15 views for everything.

If you're a home delivery paper subscriber you can get that access by paying a smaller additional extortion fee (Print subscribers = $29.99 a year.) compared to people who don't subscribe who will be charged about $100 a year ( $49.99 for 26 weeks).

They make no mention either way... but I suspect you'll still be exposed to the same level of advertising that most other forum and blog sponsors use to offer those forums and blogs (and often the news) for NO additional fees.

hth


source

The Carroll County Times just went to this model starting Oct 1. I realized today I can get around the 15 pages views by going to my privacy settings in Firefox and deleting all CC Times cookies. They want to charge $70/year for an online subscription. Yeah, I don't think so!

[CharmCityCrab]

The Carroll County Times just went to this model starting Oct 1.

I heard about this the other day and haven't yet stopped being amused every time I think about it. I spent some of my formative years in Carroll County, and the Carroll County Times is really a nothing paper. When I was growing up, it was all Associated Press stories with a few really inane "local interest" stories spliced in there. Typical front page above the fold headline from those days: "Children Collect Pennies for a Good Cause". And even before newspapers all started trimming content, the CC Times was extremely thin to the point where the weekday editions seemed light for half a newspaper, let alone a full newspaper.

They added a lot of Ravens coverage a few years ago, apparently, which is something, but, apart from that, the CC Times is something that I can't imagine would interest too many people for free -- let alone behind a pay wall. Part of it is because it's a really really local paper in a small city (Really almost a suburb of the suburbs), but I live in a similar area in southern Pennsylvania these days and the local paper up here does a much better job. Not a great job, mind you, but the local paper up here at least gets all the relevant "big" local news, such as it is -- new shop openings, crime, etc..

I remember growing up having a family friend who knew someone who worked for the Times saying they categorically refused to cover stories that seemed negative or that some people would find disturbing, even if it was the biggest stuff going on in the area. They cited some guy who hung himself as an example of things that happened and would never make the paper.

I don't know, maybe there is someone, somewhere out there, who will pay for the Carroll County Times, but it won't be anyone I know. A paper like the Baltimore Sun going behind a pay wall is annoying, the Carroll County Times going behind one is just funny.

[Tunguska]

Eh...the way it's been here would they even notice enough to ban somebody?

Not like the old days.

The unpaid Mods, rightly so, are probably saying **** it, and clicking to somewhere else that is relevant.

[russ498]

There are way too many credible sources of news, so no need to pay for this liberal, leftist dribble!!

[johman]

Truth is... it would almost be worth the price of admission just to see which posters here are foolish enough to pay for the new on-line program.

Guess I'll never know.

[temptationwalk]

There are way too many credible sources of news, so no need to pay for this liberal, leftist dribble!!

Why are you here ?

[vietnam vet against the war]

Truth is... it would almost be worth the price of admission just to see which posters here are foolish enough to pay for the new on-line program.

Guess I'll never know.

Me too.

[VTSEAL]

Terrible idea unless their goal was to drive away their remaining readers. bye sunpaper...

[soultrain]

It appears the digital subscription experiment has ended. The free market prevailed

[Peppi]

The experiment continues here. But I still think the free market prevailed.