4 ms·

I think they probably captured everyone that makes reading Newday's website a regular part of their day. I can't imagine ever doing that personally but I guess

I think they probably captured everyone that makes reading Newday's website a regular part of their day. I can't imagine ever doing that personally but I guess it's possible. I hope that they just refund those people their money and move on and try something else.

jacquesm 17y ago
> and move on and try something else. Like what ? This is their hail-Mary pass, if the subscription model does not work what are they supposed to do next? If this is an example of what will happen when paywalls rise on 'old media' sites then they're dead in the water.
- prawn 17y ago
  If I were a local paper/news-source, I'd try offering business subscriptions to SMEs that included online access for employees, coverage/feature/advertorial for products and services, and a general online advertising component. Right now, the advertising presented on local news sites in Australia seems to be a mixture of random AdWords junk and larger-budget stuff (big auto sites, etc) but not much in the way of really localised small-business advertising. With more information on readers (down to postcode and age-group), I think they could definitely do more to sell small businesses on online advertising; I'm talking about butchers, school enrolments, tradespeople, restaurants, etc. The concept I mentioned would both collect info on readers and bring small businesses into the newspaper's community.
- Zev 17y ago
  This is their hail-Mary pass, if the subscription model does not work what are they supposed to do next? Put someone competent in charge of the paper and removing quality articles and placing ads in the paper instead. Also, go back to a format that resembles a newspaper that has news in it, rather then tabloid newspapers. I used to read Newsday on a daily basis. It took approximately a month under the Dolans (current owners) for my subscription to be canceled due to the reasons above. If the problems were fixed, I'd gladly go back to reading Newsday instead of switching between the Times and the Daily News. Because currently, this isn't a story of a newspaper dying. Its a story of the tabloids dying. And good riddance; perez hilton and the ilk don't need syndication.
  - Zev 17y ago
    Correction: and removing quality should have been "and stop removing quality"
- spc476 17y ago
  Just about anything really. Here's my lame idea: Just link to international and national news articles, since it's easy enough to search Google. Might as well link to Craig's List too. What's harder is local news, so charge subscribers to get access local news now. Articles older than a month become free (since in many cases, news is worth more now than later) so you can still serve up articles from the various search engines. Also, allow several subscription plans---let people buy an article, or maybe a week's access, or a full year. And don't be so invasive with the sign-up form. Also, don't be afraid of linking out of the site. Link to sources. Link to the laws (it's avaiable). Link to previous articles you've written! (I think that would be a no brainer, but apparently newspapers have negative brains or something). Serve up local ads to local residents (easy with GeoIP), and use something like Google AdSense for anyone non-local. That way, you have an advertising advantage over Google for local businesses and you aren't wasting their advertising money showing ads to someone 3000 miles away (unless they want to---that's always an option). Dump the presses. The money you save there can be used to hire reporters (who will hopefully refrain from just pasting up press releases). Dumb? Smart? I don't know. But it's certainly a plan and one that might get you more than 35 subscribers.

jacquesm 17y ago

> and move on and try something else. Like what ? This is their hail-Mary pass, if the subscription model does not work what are they supposed to do next? If this is an example of what will happen when paywalls rise on 'old media' sites then they're dead in the water.

prawn 17y ago
If I were a local paper/news-source, I'd try offering business subscriptions to SMEs that included online access for employees, coverage/feature/advertorial for products and services, and a general online advertising component. Right now, the advertising presented on local news sites in Australia seems to be a mixture of random AdWords junk and larger-budget stuff (big auto sites, etc) but not much in the way of really localised small-business advertising. With more information on readers (down to postcode and age-group), I think they could definitely do more to sell small businesses on online advertising; I'm talking about butchers, school enrolments, tradespeople, restaurants, etc. The concept I mentioned would both collect info on readers and bring small businesses into the newspaper's community.
Zev 17y ago
This is their hail-Mary pass, if the subscription model does not work what are they supposed to do next? Put someone competent in charge of the paper and removing quality articles and placing ads in the paper instead. Also, go back to a format that resembles a newspaper that has news in it, rather then tabloid newspapers. I used to read Newsday on a daily basis. It took approximately a month under the Dolans (current owners) for my subscription to be canceled due to the reasons above. If the problems were fixed, I'd gladly go back to reading Newsday instead of switching between the Times and the Daily News. Because currently, this isn't a story of a newspaper dying. Its a story of the tabloids dying. And good riddance; perez hilton and the ilk don't need syndication.
- Zev 17y ago
  Correction: and removing quality should have been "and stop removing quality"
spc476 17y ago
Just about anything really. Here's my lame idea: Just link to international and national news articles, since it's easy enough to search Google. Might as well link to Craig's List too. What's harder is local news, so charge subscribers to get access local news now. Articles older than a month become free (since in many cases, news is worth more now than later) so you can still serve up articles from the various search engines. Also, allow several subscription plans---let people buy an article, or maybe a week's access, or a full year. And don't be so invasive with the sign-up form. Also, don't be afraid of linking out of the site. Link to sources. Link to the laws (it's avaiable). Link to previous articles you've written! (I think that would be a no brainer, but apparently newspapers have negative brains or something). Serve up local ads to local residents (easy with GeoIP), and use something like Google AdSense for anyone non-local. That way, you have an advertising advantage over Google for local businesses and you aren't wasting their advertising money showing ads to someone 3000 miles away (unless they want to---that's always an option). Dump the presses. The money you save there can be used to hire reporters (who will hopefully refrain from just pasting up press releases). Dumb? Smart? I don't know. But it's certainly a plan and one that might get you more than 35 subscribers.