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My local newspaper went from having an open, freely accessible archive of obituaries to a time-limited paywall that you can have removed for various periods of
by claudeganon 7y ago
My local newspaper went from having an open, freely accessible archive of obituaries to a time-limited paywall that you can have removed for various periods of time at correspondingly increasing prices. Just the lowest of the low.
- dangus 7y agoAnd how do you expect your local paper to survive when the classifieds (the largest source of income for many local papers IIRC) have moved online and physical subscription numbers and ad buys are declining?
- mindslight 7y agoThis line of reasoning could also justify shoplifting to stock their break room. What I would "expect" (or really "hope") is that they would not do immoral/distasteful things. As it is, obits are paid for by the word when they're printed. But apparently a few hundred dollars isn't enough to serve a simple webpage for a few decades. It would be one thing if it were just an upfront one-time fee along with the publishing. But hitting you up after it's been "published", and instant-but-short-gratification options like $3 to unlock for 24 hours (etc) is just predatory. Contrast the experience of buying a paper with the obit, keeping it, and running across it in ten years with the experience of hitting a truncated webpage that uses your lament to hit you up for money.
- claudeganon 7y agoThrough wiser business decisions than alienating their customers by putting their loved ones’ obituaries behind a paywall.