The O builds its paywall higher

Portland's daily (sorta) newspaper (sorta) is determined to force you to pay to read its content. For quite a while now, it's been putting local stories of interest behind a paywall. This week, I noticed that they have also started limiting the number of articles that readers get to look at for free.

They want $10 a month or $100 a year. Otherwise, you have to figure out a way around the paywall. The smarter techies will have no problem with that. But for the rest of us, it's pay up or be tantalized by the headlines on their front page.

One problem is that when you look at their headlines, there's not much there to make you to run for your credit card. "What the Coach Said After [Insert Team Name] Lost." "Dear Abby, My Mother-in-Law Chews With Her Mouth Open." "Downtown Showing Signs of Vibrancy."

But I think the biggest obstacle for potential subscribers are the memories of the O's circulation offices of the past. It was always easy to sign up for delivery, but cancelling a subscription was a real ordeal. 

It would be a shame if the O folded. But getting someone to pay to read what they're offering nowadays is a difficult sell.

Comments

  1. I pay less than 10 bucks a month for the NY Times and Washington Post.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Most of it is total garbage.

    They ran at least 200 stories on COVID that were nothing more than copying and pasting from the OHA website - absolute 0 analysis.

    That said, there is some amount I would pay based on pure curiosity - maybe 10 or 20 bucks per year.


    ReplyDelete
  3. My first job was delivering the Oregon Journal by bike. Good times. These days not so much.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I've found I can get around this by opening the article link in an incognito window.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

The platform used for this blog is awfully wonky when it comes to comments. It may work for you, it may not. It's a Google thing, and beyond my control. Apologies if you can't get through. You can email me a comment at jackbogsblog@comcast.net, and if it's appropriate, I can post it here for you.