OT: Detroit News and Free Press Going Behind a Paywall on Aug. 12
Fairly big news for us cheapskates. It says that everything except "breaking news" will be behind the paywall, so that will presumably include most all of their sports content. LINK.
Can't blame any news site that chooses to charge for its content, but I doubt I'll pay for those sites.
MLive and MGoBlog will continue to be FREE.
Sparties will still try and find a reason to blame it on the “Blue Wall”.
August 3rd, 2020 at 10:26 PM ^
Damn. I came here just to see the Tombstone “Well, Bye” Gif. What’s happened to this board?
August 3rd, 2020 at 10:49 PM ^
On the one hand both those papers have a history of mediocre sports writing, but on the other hand it is depressing that access to local news is becoming even more fractured and limited. Both the News and Freep had shitty writers even during the halcyon days, but I distinctly remember seeing a massive quality drop as the internet took on greater significance in the late 90s and early 00s.
Part of me does hope that they find some way to survive behind a paywall, even at a reduced size.
August 3rd, 2020 at 11:12 PM ^
It is important to support legitimate news organizations with your $$$. Especially local news which has gotten absolutely killed. It’s a sad state of affairs.
August 3rd, 2020 at 11:53 PM ^
Is charging people for something you used to give them for free really a good business model?
August 4th, 2020 at 12:20 AM ^
Bottled water?
I mean, newspapers are supported more by ad dollars than by subscribers. So this will piss off a lot of readers who aren't going to pay for a Freep subscription when they can still get info free from mLive or local broadcasters' websites. Clicks will certainly drop, making it harder to sell your site to advertisers.
Just go to mlive. The difference in quality is similar to the difference in conversing with a 6th grader instead of an 8th grader (at most ... in sports there’s little to no difference).
I haven't lived in or near Detroit since 1983, but I still check out the hometown papers daily. This will be a tough decision.