I was googling something the other day and the answer I was looking for was on a newspaper website. It wasn’t the New York Times or Washington Post, but it was a site for a big city newspaper.
The article loaded on my screen for about 5 seconds. Then a pop-up came on the screen saying that the article was for paid subscribers only. What?!
This isn’t the first time this has happened to me. I’m not going to lie, it makes me angry. Why can’t I read your article online for free?!?
If this trend continues, I am guessing CNN and MSN will have you paying for use, too. This is ridiculous.
Before I go on, let me say that I have bought the newspaper, and continue to do so on occasion. I’m not against paying for that, but an article online?! Why?!?!
I don’t even remember what I was searching for now, but it certainly wasn’t something I was going to pay for. I also don’t do enough surfing of one particular newspaper site to warrant me paying for a yearly subscription.
So am I to start charging YOU for reading my blog?! Of course not! I’m not out to make money off of my readers. (I did see where you can gift a blogger their yearly fee, which I would never ask anyone to do.). I guess that’s where I am different from the newspaper.
Maybe I am in the minority here. How do you feel about this?
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 
Just a suggestion but, I have the Brave browser on my stupidphone. The Brave app has a handy little feature built into the browser. It is “view simplified page.” It bypasses the pop up, demanding payment. There are also some plug-ins for regular browsers that bypass those things.
Most “newspapers” are hurting for subscribers. Our media has proven themselves to be liars and work in conjunction with the government to censor people. Been following the Twitter Files & Musk? The media has pissed off a large portion of Americans and they are suffering income losses because of it.
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They are dying off and are trying to make all they can. Hardly anyone buys a physical copy anymore which I do think as sad. Vic is right though….you can get other browsers that sometimes can bypass those things.
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I completely understand buying the newspaper or maybe for like extras online but im not going to lie paying for an article sounds unreal.
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it happens to me all the time and I try to remember that they are hanging on by a thread. I buy real newspapers too, but not all the time, and most people don’t at all anymore. newspapers and magazines have lost most of their ad revenue (why they’re so much smaller), which keeps them going, along with subscription fees, and they have to create paywalls to make a living and to have a number of readers to draw advertisers. most have cut staff to the bare bones and supplement with syndicated stories. it’s a tough situation and not my favorite but I understand it.
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Beth, I love physical magazines but many such publications are going digital and I don’t have the ‘feelings’ for what was once held in my hand but is now read online.
I make the exception with books, but that’s where the line is drawn. 🤔
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I miss the physical versions of all of them
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I understand your frustration. Then again..the newspapers are businesses trying to maintain a business model.
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I could say I also (hmmm) hate?… no- that’s extreme. But still…
I also dislike having to register for a ‘free’ account. What I DON’T need are a hundred and one different login credentials for anything and everything I come across. Grrr
It’s enough to set my rear on fire. haha — 😕
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The NYT is certainly the trendsetter with that, I really can’t access any of their info now. I once wanted to read an article (archived) from a Chicago paper, I only got the first two sentences and said I’d have to subscribe. But they had a free trial, so I went for that. Now, I get bombarded by multiple e-mails every day from them even though I didn’t ‘renew’ and asked to ‘unsubscribe’ to the e-mails. It’s kind of annoying but if that’s my only complaint, I’d be doing pretty well in life, LOL!
In terms of how I feel about it… well… selfish me doesn’t like it much. But on the other hand, I can see why they do it , they need to make money to keep their staff and everything going. so I can’t fault them too much. The local city paper here , as well as one of the big Toronto dailies I still try to look at has a thing where you can read four or five articles a month free, but after you reach that, no go unless you subscribe. I think that’s a realistic business model, you can see an odd article that interests you but if you find more than that that you want to see more, regularly, maybe subscribing isn’t bad. I do miss when physical hard copy papers were the norm; for most of my adult life I read at least one , usually starting on my lunch break at work and sometimes finishing up when I got home.
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