As the paywalls keep going up, I’m certainly not the only one feeling the squeeze.
The problem isn’t that we’re being asked to pay. The problem is that some of the big dawgs are asking pretty hefty subscription fees.
In the past, I’ve paid for the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Civil Beat, and Pacific Business News. I also like to look at the Washington Post, LA Times, Portland Oregonian and Seattle Times, with an occasional stop elsewhere, but haven’t had a paid subscription.
So what kind of an annual cost am I looking at for continued digital access in the age of paywalls?
Washington Post (new paywall, price to be announced)
Wall Street Journal $260 (Ouch!)
New York Times $195 to $455 (depending on type of digital access)
Los Angeles Times $103.48
Honolulu Star-Advertiser $60
Seattle Times print replica $181.48
Pacific Business News $59
Civil Beat $239.99
Just those add up to at least $992.99, with the Washington Post still to be added.
There are specials, of course. For example, I haven’t paid full price for Civil Beat and, although I write for them, I don’t know that I would. I’ll have to cross that bridge when I get there.
One partial option is PressDisplay.com, which delivers digital access to some 2,000 global newspapers for $29.95 a month. That’s a pretty good deal and sure to satiate most news junkies. But the big newspapers aren’t on its list–New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal.
As a local blogger, of course, the other clear result of the new world is that these corporate media are going to suck the oxygen out of the room. People may become accustomed to paying for news, but after subscribing to get over the most important paywalls, I doubt there’s room in many budgets to support independent local voices.
Do you have a strategy for coping with the new world of paywalls as a consumer, or as a content producer? What’s your news budget? Share your thoughts.
Thanks.
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I am only willing to pay for Civil Beat.
I am paying only for NYTimes. I read it almost everyday on my tablet. There is nothing I couldn’t find on SA elsewhere so why pay for it.
Pay for the SA – we want to support our friends & colleagues who work there.
Pay for the NYT – there really isn’t another news source like it for the US.
Pay for Civil Beat – at their half-price special, which seemed reasonable. The full-price subscription is not reasonable.
I would love to be able to pay a small fee — 10 cents? 25 cents? — for a single story. There are a lot of pubs I don’t read daily (and thus can’t justify the cost of a subscription) but I would still be happy to pay a la carte.
I subscribe to the New York Times and the Honolulu Star Advertiser because they are “papers of record.”
I have totally given up on Civil Beat: content is thin and increasingly fluffy. In fact since I cancelled my subscription a couple of months ago I have yet to use my freebie views. Most disappointing is that Civil Beat has failed to deliver the value proposition promised in its promo video (go to About Civil Beat section): as the “fourth estate,” Civil Beat has dropped the ball on some of the most important issues of the day. Also telling of the video is that after 3 years, with the exception of the incomparable Chad Blair, all the other original reporter-hosts are gone (Nanea Kalani, Adrienne LaFrance, Dan Zelikman, Michael Levine, Katherine Poythress). Warren Iwasa & Dan Mollway are right per their Star Advertiser op-ed “Transitions Interesting But Change Would Be Better” (January 02, 2013) that there is a lot of rent-seeking manipulation of Hawaii’s political system for private gain (all legal, but not ethically pono) — so there is a real need for public affairs journalism (Ua Mau ke Ea o ka Aina i ka Pono). Mr. Omidyar, maybe time to reboot and put Ian in charge?
I’m not surprised almost all of the original staff at Civil Beat have left. Civil Beat is essentially a dot com start up. I’ve worked at several on the mainland: the hours are grueling and the turnover rate is high.
I still subscribe to the weekend hard copy of the SA and thus get access to the online edition. However, except for the Sunday paper, more than half the time the delivered copy goes into the recycle bin still in the plastic wrapper.
Sunday is just ADS. You can even get it for free on daBus. One Sunday morning on daBus, I noticed one person after another get on the bus and get off at the next stop. I thought, “so lazy, ” until I noticed they were picking up a free paper and then getting off.
Uh, Ian, you’re not going to put up a pay wall, are you? How about a donation button? Would that help? Call it a “like” button or mahalo button. Or where should we send donations?
Another thought… does our public library have subscriptions to those journals you like? Last time I tried, their wifi worked! with my own kindlefire… but then you couldn’t have your cats sitting on your lap or laptop in the library.
I have subscriptions to the Star-Advertiser and Pacific Business News. I read Civil Beat but don’t subscribe. I enjoy reading about the daily give and take of local politics in Civil Beat but not enough to pay for it.
that said, I think Chad Blair at Civil Beat does amazing work.