This is a sample front page of the Democrat. You click on a story in the left hand column - and it opens up larger in the right hand column. Every page and every ad is available.
For the past 5 years - the Tallahassee Democrat has made a very bold presence on the Internet. Customers had a choice of reading the printed newspaper or sampling most of its content for free on the Net. Like all of the other newspapers - they seemed to be losing money by giving away top notch news coverage for free. Many folks - but not me - stopped buying the print edition - because they could read the entire newspaper online before their fresh paper copy was delivered for breakfast. Today - I am sitting in London at the FSU Campus - reading the full copy of the Democrat at breakfast - before the people in Tallahassee are even awake.
The dirty little secret is - no one has found a way to make money with a newspaper on the Internet. The small banner ads and page hits have not been paying the bills. People simply seldom click on the ads or read the entire contents of pop-up ads. Web pages have made it easy for people to just quickly avoid advertisements and read the "good stuff" for free.
The newspaper business is very labor intensive. Most of the writers have college degrees and deserved to be well-paid for the difficult job they have. Without revenues - newspapers have been cutting staff or cutting hours. I doubt if the "good old days" will ever return.
Someone had to try something new.
Starting this month - freeloading readers were shown the door. They can no longer enjoy the news and leaving their editorial feedback at the expense of the rest of us paying customers.
The paper edition costs roughly $15 a month. The online edition is $10. If you want the combination home delivery and entire newspaper online - it will cost you $20.
Make no mistake - this is a very risky roll of the dice. Even the New York Times tried to sell a special online edition for $5 a month - but they failed.
I am in their corner cheering for the Democrat. At $20 a month - their news services are a real bargain. People are just spoiled from getting the product for free so long - it will just take some adjusting.
No longer can freeloaders get on their soapboxes and sound off anonymously on every article - unless they pay for the privilege.
