The website that represents online what used to be the three biggest daily newspapers in Alabama* has launched an at-least-so-far voluntary paywall.
They're asking people to "subscribe" to the website for $10 a month.
That's a big step shy of building a pay wall and requiring visitors to pay, as some papers have done.
I pay $1 a month for access to The N.Y. Times.
I pay $1 a month for access to The Washington Post.
Newspaper advertising virtually collapsed in recent years, with the cash cow of classified ads starting the trend when virtually all of it went online for free.
I used to be a fairly regular visitor to AL.COM, but their design was driving me crazy. It's as if they have a huge whiteboard in their newsroom and everybody throws stuff at it. Whatever sticks becomes part of the day's "stuff".
Mixed in are (Shhhhh!) ads. You'll know they are ads because of quiet little Advertisement notices on top of them. Its as if they are ashamed of the minimal advertising support that's still around! Actually they are trying to make the ads mix in with the editorial content so visitors might accidentally start reading one.
Anyway, if you want to become a charter subscriber for $10 a month, go to the website. We'll see if this is the first step toward requiring visitors to pay.
*The Birmingham News, The Huntsville Times, and The Mobile Press-Register. They stopped 7 day a week publishing in 2012, leaving The Montgomery Advertiser as the largest daily paper in Alabama.
UPDATE: Their reporters etc have been told to take unpaid time off and pay cuts. Rough times at all media.
They're asking people to "subscribe" to the website for $10 a month.
That's a big step shy of building a pay wall and requiring visitors to pay, as some papers have done.
I pay $1 a month for access to The N.Y. Times.
I pay $1 a month for access to The Washington Post.
Newspaper advertising virtually collapsed in recent years, with the cash cow of classified ads starting the trend when virtually all of it went online for free.
"Newspaper classified advertising peaked in 2000 at $19.6 billion. In 2012, the most recent year for which data are available from the Newspaper Association of America, classified advertising was $4.6 billion — a drop of about 77 percent in barely more than a decade.From a MinnPost online story
I used to be a fairly regular visitor to AL.COM, but their design was driving me crazy. It's as if they have a huge whiteboard in their newsroom and everybody throws stuff at it. Whatever sticks becomes part of the day's "stuff".
Mixed in are (Shhhhh!) ads. You'll know they are ads because of quiet little Advertisement notices on top of them. Its as if they are ashamed of the minimal advertising support that's still around! Actually they are trying to make the ads mix in with the editorial content so visitors might accidentally start reading one.
Anyway, if you want to become a charter subscriber for $10 a month, go to the website. We'll see if this is the first step toward requiring visitors to pay.
*The Birmingham News, The Huntsville Times, and The Mobile Press-Register. They stopped 7 day a week publishing in 2012, leaving The Montgomery Advertiser as the largest daily paper in Alabama.
UPDATE: Their reporters etc have been told to take unpaid time off and pay cuts. Rough times at all media.
When they went from daily to three times a week they promised the same content but printed fewer times a week. Didn't happen. I wish the "reporters" would run spell and grammar check software since obviously they also got rid of anyone who might proof copy before it goes on line.
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