Dispatch Contemplates Going Pay/Subscription for Online Content

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Dispatch Contemplates Going Pay/Subscription for Online Content

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Started 1 year ago by Walker
Latest reply from michaelcoyote

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Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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Benjamin J. Marrison commentary: Labels today demonstrate what comes only from us
Sunday, February 14, 2010
BY BENJAMIN J. MARRISON

Today's Dispatch is peppered with red logos designating stories and other content as being found "only in The Dispatch."

The goal of today's labeling exercise is to make readers aware of how much exclusive content is generated by this newspaper's staff.

While print readers are encountering the logos, those who read the exclusive stories online today will need to first register or sign in as subscribers to see exclusive content. It's our way of pointing out that while our original content is free online today, that might not be the case in the future.

READ MORE: http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/insight/stories/2010/02/14/Ben_0214.ART_ART_02-14-10_G1_J6GID2G.html?sid=101

Posted 1 year ago #
chaptal
West Side
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Here's how well that model is going for Newsday on Long Island.

Granted, print and many cable subscribers have access, but thirty five paid subscriptions has to be a bit dissappointing.

Posted 1 year ago #
Mister Shifter
The Kingdom of Zamunda
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Good luck with that.

Posted 1 year ago #
greenhouse1014
Columbus
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Yeah, because the pay model has worked so well with other print newspapers...

Posted 1 year ago #
somertimeoh
Harrison West
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Would anyone really pay to read the Dispatch? I wonder if those hate spewers would pay to comment?!? :)

Posted 1 year ago #
Twixlen
Westgate, Columbus
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I think it depends on how people use it.

NYTimes is going to paid content... and I'll be paying. If The Atlantic online ever went to paid content, I'd also pay for that. I don't get either of them in paper form, and have no desire to.

Posted 1 year ago #
Mercurius
First Avenue
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Twixlen wrote >>
I think it depends on how people use it.
NYTimes is going to paid content... and I'll be paying. If The Atlantic online ever went to paid content, I'd also pay for that. I don't get either of them in paper form, and have no desire to.

+1

On the Dispatch, as long as they have an option to buy articles rather than a flat subscription fee, I'll be happy. I'll probably only buy three per year, but even a blind squirrel... Between CU and Gongwer, I don't really read much of the dispatch now and if they only have a flat subscription rate, then I guess I won't read it at all. I do really like their political blog though. Hope that stays free.

Posted 1 year ago #
JonMyers
Ao Nang, Krabi, Thailand
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NYTimes is going to a metered pay system, not a full on pay wall.

This would put the other foot in the grave for the Dispatch.

Posted 1 year ago #
agtw31
columbus
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fuck 'em.

Posted 1 year ago #
blammo
in the shadow of the wonder of bread
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agtw31 wrote >>
fuck 'em.

+1

bring back the columbus citizen journal

Posted 1 year ago #
Aaron Marshall
Baja Clintonville
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Given the amount of threads started on here using the Dispatch's content, I'm curious what CU and other parasitic blogs/websites would do if they went to a pay wall...

Posted 1 year ago #
Snarf
How Do I Delete My Account
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Columbus Dispatch, from the Crypt.

Posted 1 year ago #
rave_til_dawn
Dennison Place
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The Dispatch use to have a paywall for it's online content 9 years ago. I use to pay $4.95/month to read the online content. Then they made it free a few years later.

Posted 1 year ago #
cc

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It would kill the linking to the articles that Walker does, other than that I don't think anyone would care to pay for it. Ever since they went with outsourcing to India for much of their production (and anything they could get away with) I gave up my loyalty to them. I am sorry for the loss of some local news coverage, but local tv and independents will fill in the gap.

Fuck 'em +3

added:
They probably need the $$$ to pay for the latest "Save the Arena - or other Dispatch investment" grassroots crying game they are playing....

Posted 1 year ago #
groundrules

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Make people pay for the Alive.

Posted 1 year ago #
Talcott
Clintonville
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Aaron Marshall wrote >>
Given the amount of threads started on here using the Dispatch's content, I'm curious what CU and other parasitic blogs/websites would do if they went to a pay wall...

They would start from somewhere else. The Dispatch is the major newspaper in Columbus, so it makes sense to link to those articles, but it's not the only source for local news. CU (and most blogs, for that matter) is popular because of the conversations and commentary that spring up around the articles, along with the content that is exclusive to the site (the podcast, for example).

Posted 1 year ago #
Aaron Marshall
Baja Clintonville
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Talcott wrote >>

Aaron Marshall wrote >>
Given the amount of threads started on here using the Dispatch's content, I'm curious what CU and other parasitic blogs/websites would do if they went to a pay wall...

They would start from somewhere else. The Dispatch is the major newspaper in Columbus, so it makes sense to link to those articles, but it's not the only source for local news. CU (and most blogs, for that matter) is popular because of the conversations and commentary that spring up around the articles, along with the content that is exclusive to the site (the podcast, for example).

I think you and others would quickly find out that the Dispatch's local news content is basically what sets the agenda for media across central Ohio.
There are no alternatives at this point for first-rate local reporting aside from Business First for business news. That hasn't always been the case in this town but it is right now.

Posted 1 year ago #
Bear
The woods
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(sigh...) Newspapers and music companies are just thinking about these issues the wrong way, it seems to me. They're thinking about how to extract money from people, instead of how to provide things that people want (and will therefore pay for).

They realized early on that the internet meant that a lot of stuff was available for low or little cost, and so they rushed to provide their content alongside it... not bad but as they're now realizing it won't pay the rent.

The Times, New Yorker, Slate, a couple of others found a way to tap my wallet when they tailored their content to my Kindle. I get their content, delivered effortlessly to an e-reader whenever they produce it... so simple and useful to me that I'm willing to set up auto-pay and cough up a pretty good fraction of their dead-tree subscription price to have them delivered. Most if not all of them are clearing more profit from me than they did pre-Kindle; the only exception may be the NYT, depending on their production costs. And I'm quite happy with that outcome.

I'm not saying that's the answer to everything, of course. But it's the sort of customer-oriented solution that's better-designed than "pay for our content or get nothing," which only works if you've genuinely managed to corner a monopoly position.

Posted 1 year ago #
blammo
in the shadow of the wonder of bread
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Aaron Marshall wrote >>

Talcott wrote >>

Aaron Marshall wrote >>
Given the amount of threads started on here using the Dispatch's content, I'm curious what CU and other parasitic blogs/websites would do if they went to a pay wall...

They would start from somewhere else. The Dispatch is the major newspaper in Columbus, so it makes sense to link to those articles, but it's not the only source for local news. CU (and most blogs, for that matter) is popular because of the conversations and commentary that spring up around the articles, along with the content that is exclusive to the site (the podcast, for example).

I think you and others would quickly find out that the Dispatch's local news content is basically what sets the agenda for media across central Ohio.
There are no alternatives at this point for first-rate local reporting aside from Business First for business news. That hasn't always been the case in this town but it is right now.

I suspect the Dispatch would quickly find out they are not as invaluable as they seem to think they are.

Posted 1 year ago #
berdawn
near that stretch of N. High Street in the Short North
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rave_til_dawn wrote >>
The Dispatch use to have a paywall for it's online content 9 years ago. I use to pay $4.95/month to read the online content. Then they made it free a few years later.

I did that. I'm fine with paying for news...local, national, international. I'm really surprised that CSM is still free.

ETA: how much would it cost to get the comments section moderated?

Posted 1 year ago #