and -- BOOM! -- just like that, the Chron gets rid of the paywall after just 4 months:
http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2013/08/chronicle_kills_its_paywall_--.php
I like how they refer to sfgate content as 'dreck'.... the quality on that site has certainly declined in the interim.
eh, you get what you pay for.
Agreed.
I don't blame the Chron for trying the paywall. It's unfortunate that nobody has figured out a viable model for funding quality content for true journalism. You know, with editors and experienced, talented writers and stuff.
Back in the early to mid-90s, I read many breathless articles in newspapers
about how this Internet thing was going to "change everything." I guess the
people running the papers don't pay much attention to their own work. Most if
not all of those articles' authors aren't working there anymore.
The strongly-held conceit of the newspaper folks is that they are in the
journalism business, and their job is to provide reporting, commentary, and
analysis to the public. Then Mr. Newmark came along, and with a simple,
text-only web site poked a hole in their business model and let literally
hundreds of millions of dollars of classified ad revenue leak away into the
ether. In the process he demonstrated that conceit to be false, and that the
newspaper people didn't seem to realize what their business really was.
Google, in contrast, hasn't made that mistake. Google knows it isn't in the
business of providing search results, free e-mail, maps, satellite photos, or
any of the dozens of other services they offer. Google is in the business of
selling advertising; it is their main source of revenue. And whether they
realize it or not, newspapers, magazines, radio, and television are all in the
same business -- selling advertising. The articles and programming offered by
these media is simply the bait to assemble an audience, which can then be sold
to advertisers.
It is a little sad that the newspapers forgot what their business really was,
and that mistake may ultimately lead to their demise. Nothing can replace a
lazy Sunday brunch with one's sweetie, reading the paper, trading sections back
and forth, and pointing out items of mutual interest.
Not quite as romantic with two laptops, e-mailing links to each other.
