My favorite Christmas albums are still on LP. I pulled the portable player off the shelf this afternoon, along with some of the records, and we’re underway.
Filed under: Uncategorized | 12 Comments »
Looks like The Union is starting the new year with a “paywall”
Posted on December 19, 2011 by jeffpelline
"Do good fences make good neighbors" when it comes to newspapers?
“We want you to continue to enjoy the TheUnion.com website and we’ll give you a special login to give you all month to evaluate our premium content,” it read.
“As a thank you for your evaluation, we’ll enter your name to win an iPad 2. You have nothing to lose by trying it out!”
Once you’ve entered the contest, we’ll give you a new login that you can use for All Access until the contest ends mid February. See the iPad2 Drawing Official Rules.
After January 17, you can log out of your existing account if you have one, then login as:”
Other papers belonging to the Nevada-based Swift Newspaper chain — mocked in one of the articles for a “McMountain News” mass production style — have been erecting “paywalls.” Details are here, here, here and here. Oh and here.
One observation that was made of another Swift paper (see the last link I provided): “The paywalls will also restrict the reach of Swift publications, effectively sealing off content from millions of web surfers around the world, who may not care to read daily news from the Greeley Tribune, for example, but who may well land on the site when seeking to read on specific topics or people Greeley Trib reporters happen to cover.“
Never fear. This article (the closing of BofA’s branch — the only bank branch — in downtown Nevada City) first appeared on a “free” website, Sierra Foothills Report. Then it appeared in The Union.
There’s Yubanet, KNCO, KVMR, the other blogs and the aggregation site, Nevada County Voices.
The rates for the “All Access” subscription of the Carson City, Nev., paper (one of The Union’s sister papers) is here. In this case, it’s $6.95 per month.
And the Carson City newspaper adds: “Stories dealing with issues of public safety will be offered free on the website even after the free trial period ends. In addition, one or two premium local stories will be offered free each day on nevadaappeal.com. Other staff-generated news, sports and business content will require an All Access subscription in order to read it online. National and international news, obituaries, road closures, some columnists and stories about professional sports, will be among the features that will remain free online.”
I wonder if The Union’s publisher will write about this in his column tomorrow? And will it eventually wind up behind the “paywall” too? 
Filed under: Uncategorized | 9 Comments »
