Philadelphia

[General_Failure]

That's also good advice for reading anything from Twitter.

[MDS]

Whatcha talkin' about Havas? I am on Philly.com and haven't seen a pay-wall pop up.

New York Newsday tried this for awhile and recently backed off because so many refused to pay.

I wonder if The Brownsville Gazette can be read for free....

everything can because the people who run newspapers are dumber than munson

even if you charged something incredibly cheap...like say $5 for a year of access or even a one shot lifetime deal, it would be a success. cause that could mean $5000 in profit while right now you get $0 in real profit and maybe like $50000 in hypothetical internet money.

philly.com isnt a bad place to try because no one really competes with them and their resources. you would guys pony up $5 to read the site each year? i would.

newsday tried I think $5 a month or something and competes with the post, the times, the daily news, the nj papers....no shot they were gonna win that.

[ice grillin you]

they are charging like 15 bucks a month

[MDS]

5 a week...just looked. so its like 20 a month and no one is going to do that.

you have to keep it insanely cheap to start so people dont even think twice about and do it (i.e. 5 a year). if that turns into a success then either bump it up to 10 or move it to 5 every month or every quarter or something. i dont know, im not an expert. i just know the business is dying, cuts are being made left and right and yet everyday people get content for free.

seems like SOMEONE should put their foot down and start charging.

[charlie]

As long as someone gives the same info for free, no one is going to pay for access to one site. Either they all charge, or they all dont... the middle ground will not work.

And even then, people will do without.

[MDS]

no one is giving the same info for free where i love though

philly.com is a slightly different story, but in the valley its just us. tv blows and doesnt have the resources. there is really nothing else.

but it certainly would help for everyone to be on board, though paywall of any kind would kill suburban paper websites.

[ice grillin you]

5 a week...just looked. so its like 20 a month and no one is going to do that.

its 2.99 a week

As long as someone gives the same info for free, no one is going to pay for access to one site. Either they all charge, or they all dont... the middle ground will not work.

And even then, people will do without.

you are not getting near the same info for free...in fact the free part of philly.com is horrible now...you cant even access the individual papers anymore...plus its slow as shtein




im definitely signing up for the digital subscription

[Sgt PSN]

Anything more than $5/month to subscribe to a newspaper's website would be ridiculous.  Papers themselves are all but dead.  If they were smart, they'd shut down the presses now, move everything to their website and charge a subscription fee.  The income would be less, but they'd no longer have the expenses associated with printing and the labor that goes with it, so they could still make the same amount of money while charging less for their service. 

Also, people tend to be pretty loyal to certain papers and/or columnists, so if the Inquirer started charging to read their site, then there are plenty of people out there who would gladly pay because they either want the news from that columnist they like or just want it from local people rather than the AP or something. 

Something that these guys would/should do is to have full and partial subscriptions where the partial subscription plans would allow to you pay a smaller fee if you only wanted to read a certain section of a paper or even just a particular columnist.  So I could subscribe to the Inky's sports section and the Daily News' Business section......or whatever. 

[charlie]

5 a week...just looked. so its like 20 a month and no one is going to do that.

its 2.99 a week

As long as someone gives the same info for free, no one is going to pay for access to one site. Either they all charge, or they all dont... the middle ground will not work.

And even then, people will do without.

you are not getting near the same info for free...in fact the free part of philly.com is horrible now...you cant even access the individual papers anymore...plus its slow as shtein




im definitely signing up for the digital subscription

You can get the same information for free. Who won the game, there was a robbery, building collapsed... yada yada yada... if you want read the particular writers and their slants on things/opinions.. then you will subscribe to the service.

[ice grillin you]

im looking at them both right now...the digital version is the entire print edition and has way more than the philly.com stuff...not to mention its super user friendly and incredibly fast

if you cant afford it or arent interested in the paper you wouldnt get it...but saying they both have essentially the same info incorrect

[ice grillin you]

Anything more than $5/month to subscribe to a newspaper's website would be ridiculous.  

its .42 a day...half the cost of a real paper...shtein the sunday paper alone cost more than an entire week of papers online

id still prefer the paper cause i like the feel of holding a real paper but its hardly ridiculous

[Diomedes]

I know the NY Times is getting ready to charge people.  When they do, I'll be one of the first to sign up.  Can't live without that paper.

[MDS]

someone has to step up and do it first...ny times wouldnt be bad. everyone would follow their lead.

@ sarge--they cant cut down on the print edition quite yet. people 40+ still are willing to pay for their papers and still want them. the upper 60's most likely dont even know how to use a computer, so theyd be frozen out.

what you do is kind of stagger the costs. so for just regular internet stuff (like the site now) its 5 month/year/one time fee. for maybe 10 you get the site and print edition of the paper in digital form. for a regular subscription it all comes free.

again i find i hard to believe that people wouldnt pony up 5 a year or something to read their local sports site. then with the content paywalled you can release the hounds on blogs trying to piggyback off their content posting it for free. so really the only way people can find out indepth phillies stuff is to not be a cheap funhole and pay for content.

but i know this will never happen.   

[phillycrew]

NJ has farged up laws about guns, always has

Oh, that makes it okay then.  And why is some officer sticking his stick in cow mouths?  Chris Christie has a way to go in that messed up state.

whoa whoa, what ?

"A few weeks after Aitken's trial over the summer, Morley learned that Christie was not going to reappoint him, due in part to a 2009 case in which he dismissed animal-cruelty charges against a Moorestown cop accused of sticking his penis into the mouths of five calves. Morley said there was no way of knowing whether the calves had been "puzzled" or "tormented" by the officer's actions."

Cops are outta control.

[SD]

The articles on Philly.com are still coming up for me and I haven't registered or paid a cent.