CL to go to paywall on August 1; They are toast.

[Rutherford B Hays]

Clarion-Ledger publisher Leslie Hurst announced the newspaper's website
will move to a subscription-based model on August 1: <span class="fullpost">

"We have seen so much change at The Clarion-Ledger,
especially in the past few years. Where once our focus was on publishing a
printed product once a day, we now publish our news and information constantly
and on many different platforms. We changed because the world changed and the
way you wanted to consume our content changed.

Those changes have forever
altered the old business model, a model on which newspaper companies once
thrived. The old way has simply become unsustainable, and so today I write to
you to lay out how we are changing again, and why.

For years, we have
charged customers for the printed newspaper edition and its delivery, and given
our content away free online. Starting Aug. 1, that will change.

Under a
new subscription model, we will now be charging for our content, regardless of
how it is accessed. We believe this new model will help provide the resources to
sustain our mission of great community journalism and continue to be the state's
leading provider of news and information.....

The biggest change - again
- is that we will now charge for our online content and non-subscribers will
have access to only a still-to-be-determined number of monthly story views. The
past practice of providing unrestricted access to our content for
non-subscribers was neither fair nor sustainable in the long term.

Print
subscribers will see a price increase as well. As difficult as I know that is to
hear, I hope you will agree that at just under 80 cents a day, the quality and
breadth of our content remains an incredible bargain...."
</span>

 

[FlabLoser]

Wow, sticking it to the print subs too. Didn't see that coming.

Maybe I should follow the CL model to recruit bloggers and start a local news website.

 

[Maroon Eagle]

...but I think they picked a good time with football coming up soon.

 

[RocketDawg]

Major newspapers here are going to a 3-day-per-week printed paper with "enhanced" online content. I think I like the CL's approach better: continue to publish a printed newspaper, but charge more. At least there's an option that way.<div>
</div><div>Another point of contention here, for me at least, is that the Alabama approach minimizes the local feeling of a newspaper. The 3 papers we (and Mobile) will get each week will be printed in Birmingham. The al.com site is now headquartered in Birmingham (it was established in Huntsville several years ago).</div><div>
</div><div>So just about everything is centered in Birmingham. They don't seem to realize that Huntsville and Mobile are not suburbs of Birmingham. The continue to publish positive spin on this but I suspect our local news and political coverage will suffer to the point of being nonexistent in a few years.</div><div>
</div><div>For some reason, Montgomery seems to have escaped all this. Not sure what they will do.</div>

 

[Arthur2478]

As difficult as I know that is to
hear, I hope you will agree that at just under 80 cents a day, the quality and
breadth of our content remains an incredible bargain...."

WTH? $24 a month for the print version? That's a damn rip off. They have fired the majority of their experienced writers and the paper has shrunk to virtually nothing but AP articles during the week. So now they want to charge more? That makes zero sense. I wish they would hurry up and pad lock the doors on that place.

 

[EAVdog]

The Clarion Ledger is a mix of the 'Jackson Free Press' and an AP feeder. The sports coverage is the only reason I routinely visit but I have a membership to 247 and frequent Sixpack so I can get the same information without paying.

The CL is dead, terrible move.

 

[Entertainment720]

I think this is their only option otherwise they will disappear like all other newspapers slowly are... I haven't bought a paper in 10 years and if you take away the option I might be willing to pay for an online subscription, but as long as twitter is free and people continue to put everything on twitter I might never pay for a subscription again

 

[dawgstudent]

[No message]

 

[dudehead]

Twitter has changed everything. Just be mindful about what you read.

 

[FlabLoser]

The Clarion Ledger is a mix of the 'Jackson Free Press' and an AP feeder. The sports coverage is the only reason I routinely visit but I have a membership to 247 and frequent Sixpack so I can get the same information without paying.

The CL is dead, terrible move.

I agree.

I wish they would try turning it into something worth paying for. Instead they are getting their expenses down to the bare minimum and then wringing whatever subscription dollars are available to turn s profit.

Damn business with profits and stuff...

I think they will make the CL profitable, which is all they care about. Maybe after it is profitable for a long enough period of time, they will turn their attention towards growing the thing. Maybe.

 

[The Peeper]

important stuff so you will still get the highlights if they're still free.

 

[aTotal360]

[No message]

 

[GloryDawg]

bd</p>

 

[dawgstudent]

[No message]

 

[The Peeper]

been awhile.

 

[8dog]

he actually has good takes and does more than just reporting. I could do without the cardinals stuff but I think he is far superior to BM and 2HD.

 

[pDigital32Dawg]

Stevens was a lifesaver to me during baseball season through twitter. He had in bat updates instead of the one tweet every inning from Jim Ellis. I know that isn't why we want his feed, but it has increased my respect for him.

 

[EAVdog]

They dropped their Business Section which really vaulted the Atlanta Business Chronicle into prominence. They also dropped their Lifestyle Section. Creative Loafing has picked up the slack there to a degree as well as a few magazine type publications.The AJCmadeup the differencewith stock AP articles,silly blogs that are designed to increase responsesfrom the readers, and Kroger Ads. Which of course has caused readership to nosedive.

All the cost cutting measures shed the parts of the paper that are actually important to local readers. I think the problems are that these decisions are being made way up the corporate structure and that nobody at the local level has much input. Why would/should anyone buy a 'local' paper if it's just a rehash of the NYT/AP/WaPo with some weak attempts at local blogs thrown in?

 

[RonnyAtmosphere]

..once, long ago, newspapers wrote articles that tell the truth, & separate the wheat from the chaff.


Now newspapers try to remain "neutral," & report crap like: "On Sunday, while appearing on Meet the Press, Senator Ironbutt claimed the sun rises in the west. Other members of the senate have released statements voicing opposition of senator Ironbutt's claim. The White House has yet to respond."


In the past, when newspapers took their job seriously, a newspaper would have said: "Sunday, on Meet the Press, senator Ironbutt claimed the sun rises in the west. As this paper went to press, it is not known yet whether senator Inronbutt has entered an insane asylum for psychological evaluation."


The CL dumbed it down to the point they are now finished as a viable business model.

 

[fishwater99]

I already pay $18 per month for the CL, they better not go up on my price. I have been reading the morning paper for over 20 years now..

 

[FlabLoser]

Why would/should anyone buy a 'local' paper if it's just a rehash of the NYT/AP/WaPo with some weak attempts at local blogs thrown in?

You're right, there is no good reason to buy such a paper. But "lots of people" still will, so print media will make decisions to scale their costs and their employees down to whatever makes them a profit.

Frankly, once pay walls go up, I think subscriptions will too. Sure the pay wall pisses everybody off and so does less content in general. But faced with that or nothing, more people are going to subscribe.

Not me though. And probably not you either, I take it.