What do you guys think of the Tennesseean now charging $12/mo for online access? (Brentwood: home, unemployed)

[maverick92170]

What do you guys think of this move? I got hit with the blackout today myself...

Is the print edition still pretty good?

I also read the Indy Star (same owner) since my wife's from there, and they probably will get this soon too along, along with my hometown paper, the Montgomery Advertiser...

Is this the wave of the future? I am surprised this didn't happen sooner...I know newsprint is dying, but I was wondering if online ads were gonna do the trick for most outlets...

Are there any good alternative online outlets online that are still free?

Thanks as always...

[CountryGirl2b=]

I think it is inevitable. Advertising prices for the print editions of newspapers are pretty high and they aren't getting as many since people are now getting a lot of news online. The print edition is much more fun to read curled up in bed . . .

They have revamped some of the sections - I think it's Wednesday, Thursday and Friday - a health "Life" section along with Food, and theater . . . but Monday/Tuesday are pretty light.

Did see that if you have a monthly subscription to the PRINT edition you get free online access.

I gave up my subscription to USA Today due to the cost and now only get it when I am in the mood. Same price as the subscription. I might switch to just getting Sunday Tennessean. Have no idea where to get local Nashville NEWS news unless it's this paper.

[BirdieBelle]

It IS inevitable since the Tennessean is run by a huge conglomerate that only cares about costs and keeps bringing in editors from other towns who know ZILCH about the area. They have fired most of the good reporters and editors, and now even are allowing local PR people to write some of the content:

Tennessean Farms Out Health Section to Hospital Flacks | Pith in the Wind

The copy desk is in Louisville, the local sections basically only print twice a week. It's terrible.

Yes, online access is free if you subscribe, and they don't include all print content online. But many communities have hyperlocal new sites. Brentwood has one

Brentwood's Online Newspaper Home Page

and Williamson County in general has its own newspaper:

Williamson Herald :: The Voice of America's Greatest County :: Williamson Herald :: The Voice of America's Greatest County

[GWoodle]

Get used to it. The era of the "free" Net is over. Don't forget the Tennessean is owned by Gannet and they call all the shots. $12 if you don't get the newspaper may be cheap.

[sfitz]

That's too bad. I really enjoyed getting the Tennessean Fri. Sat & Sun. Then they sent me a bill that said I owed money and my subscription wasn't up until Oct. It's all corporate. I said forget it. I enjoyed the online too, but oh well.

[bspray]

I think it is going to fail miserably. While they don't generate the same revenue with online ads that they do with print ads, they also don't have the same expense with the online version of the paper that they do with printing every single day and distributing. As long as they keep the print version alive, it doesn't cost them that much more to host the same content online.

Charging that much for the online version is going to SIGNIFICANTLY cut their online readership and, consequently, give a lot of their online advertisers a reason to expect to pay less for online ads since a lot less people are seeing the ads. Since they won't want to take less money from advertisers, something will have to give and they will either go back to making it free or the will have to drastically cut the cost.

What the Tennessean has to hope is that some other option doesn't come along and steal all their readers while they are busy experimenting.

While online subscriptions have worked for a few of the large newspapers (Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today) they have failed miserably for smaller, local newspapers. I don't expect this will last very long.

YMMV,
Brian

[maverick92170]

Hadn't seen that one in my searches before until I stumbled upon it today...

Funny but I also actually found a way to see specific Tennesssean articles by getting around the "blackout" this AM...tried it twice and it worked both times...kinda made me chuckle a bit...

[Hey_Hey]

Clearly, the way newspapers are still functioning isn't going to work. An industry can only take losses for so long before the money simply runs out. The model of having people purchase a real paper copy when they can have the same product for free online isn't a winning strategy in the long run. In general, people are turning toward online products and away from traditional products, so the market for the paper copies is shrinking. It's not a good thing when a company's customers are increasingly choosing their free product over their product that brings in revenue.

Whether this works or not remains to be seen, but they have to try something.

[mcredux]

Wave of the future? Not really. Just a dying business model that is desperate to dredge up some cash.

The vast majority of Tennessean stories aren't relevant to anyone with a clue and/or are already covered more in-depth by niche web publications. For example, is there anything about the Tennessean's coverage of the Titans that is superior to any other webpage's NFL coverage? Nope.

The vast majority of Tennessean stories are popcorn/gimmick stories that cater to unemployed housewives and technological illiterates who STILL haven't made the transition to the internet, much in the same way Country Music caters to this crowd. Look at the Tennessean web presence. It's a time capsule from 2003. I halfway expect to see a dancing baby.

The signal-to-noise ratio is better even here on citydata, where you find people like JMT breaking down some surprisingly good Tennessee statistics. Does this ever happen with the Tennessean? Do they ever bother with infographics consisting of hard data? Nope.

Most local news will end up being automated and customized to personal tastes, like Pandora. This will be benefit both the news consumer and the advertiser. For jobless SEC english majors, they're SOL.

[Anony-Momma]

I read a paper copy of The Tennessean this morning. Someone left it on a table at church. It is tiny, like a really small town paper. I was not expecting it to be so small. No, we will not subscribe to the paper copy or the internet subscription.