Online PG will begin charging $$$ (Pittsburgh, York: neighborhoods, price, celebrity)

[trackstar13]

RIP Post Gazette, I have already deleted it as one of my online bookmarks and switched to the Tribune Review.

I know that within newspaper circles it's become popular to claim that we've now entered the era of the paywall. Paywall supporters love to point to the NY Times and the Wall Street Journal -- along with claims from various paywall companies that more and more newspapers are moving over to such a model. However, we've been hearing plenty of stories suggesting that for most every newspaper that isn't a major national or international brand, the paywalls are looking like dismal failures. Very, very, very few (at times, shockingly few) people are signing up, and by setting up the paywall, they're actually losing a fair number of online visitors. This isn't a surprise. As we've been arguing for years, a paywall is the exact wrong strategy for most newspapers, since the real business they're in is building a community and then selling that community's attention. Yet, a paywall makes it much, much harder to build a community, first by putting up a tollbooth, and then making it nearly impossible for readers to share the news and bring others into that community.

So it should come as little surprise that the SF Chronicle here in San Francisco has apparently killed its paywall after just four months. The quickness with which it's been pulled certainly suggests that the number of signups was appallingly low and someone finally did the math and realized what a colossal disaster this was going to be. For your typical metro or regional newspaper, all a paywall really does is open up a huge market for online competitors. It looks like the Chronicle found that out the hard way.

Yet Another Newspaper Paywall Goes Bust: SF Chronicle Gives Up After Just Four Months | Techdirt

[julian17033]

Originally Posted by JoeP

Aside from the fact that the Trib isn't as good... the writing is on the wall. All newspapers need revenue.

The Trib will charge at some point and sooner than you think. The more newspapers that put up pay walls, the more that will follow.

I'd say at least 70 percent of current newspaper online paywalls are easily defeated by Ghostry and
ABP (Ad Blocker Plus).

I use both in tandem with one another with very favorable results.

There are always exceptions like the New York Times pay wall and a few others but those are notably more expensive for the media source to use thus the reason why the pay walls most widely used are easily blocked.

To those that say the media source needs to obtain revenue in order to stay in business, I say that's very true however I simply don't care.

[JoeP]

Jesus people grow up.

It costs money to operate a newspaper. They operated for a long, long time on a business model dependent on both advertising and subscribers. It's a reality that many, many more will put up a paywall or fold.

The Trib will too, You watch. BTW, $.33 is cheaper than the print rate. So let's drop the contrived drama of "RIP PG, I've deleted your bookmark"

[trackstar13]

Originally Posted by JoeP

Jesus people grow up.

It costs money to operate a newspaper. They operated for a long, long time on a business model dependent on both advertising and subscribers. It's a reality that many, many more will put up a paywall or fold.

The Trib will too, You watch. BTW, $.33 is cheaper than the print rate. So let's drop the contrived drama of "RIP PG, I've deleted your bookmark"

No contrived drama, just no more Post Gazette for me and hundreds of thousands of others. In other words, for many the Post Gazette is dead so RIP.

[UKyank]

Originally Posted by JoeP

Jesus people grow up.

It costs money to operate a newspaper. They operated for a long, long time on a business model dependent on both advertising and subscribers. It's a reality that many, many more will put up a paywall or fold.
The Trib will too

While you may be correct I don't think anyone under the age of say 45 cares (well maybe theoretically but not enough to actually pony up)

And the Trib has the advantage of not really needing to be profitable at all to survive.

[I_Like_Spam]

The death notices for the P-G will still be online for free, and that's the only part of the paper I read without fail.

[Copanut]

You mean the Irish Sports Page?

[JoeP]

No contrived drama, just no more Post Gazette for me and hundreds of thousands of others. In other words, for many the Post Gazette is dead so RIP.

um, yeah, not contrived and not dramatic at all...

And the Trib has the advantage of not really needing to be profitable at all to survive.

Being part of Dick Scaife's political machine will likely always make it survive.

While you may be correct I don't think anyone under the age of say 45 cares (well maybe theoretically but not enough to actually pony up)

We won't know how this all shakes out until most sites are pay sites. There is plenty of free content out there, but when it comes to local content, options are more limited. The whole system will continue to evolve.

[MathmanMathman]

Things like Craigslist killed classified ads and Monster.com and LinkedIn killed the need for want ads.

I think local news outlets might have to merge. It might be a good thing if the PG merges with a local news station and maybe create a good all local news sub-channel with a television news magazine format. Local TV news is just bad. Either that or do like Youtube and put in short ads before reading a story.

[Copanut]

Originally Posted by MathmanMathman

Things like Craigslist killed classified ads and Monster.com and LinkedIn killed the need for want ads.

I think local news outlets might have to merge. It might be a good thing if the PG merges with a local news station and maybe create a good all local news sub-channel with a television news magazine format. Local TV news is just bad. Either that or do like Youtube and put in short ads before reading a story.

Bingo!

It will be a sad day when newspapers fade away.