Information wants to be free, reporters want to be paid, Part 34
The publisher and editor of the Tallahassee Democrat penned a column yesterday about some changes in store for the Florida capital newspaper. Like most columnists, they buried the lede (typesetter lingo for most important part of the story).
After meandering through a history lesson about the paper and their hometown, publisher Patrick Dorsey and editor Bob Gabordi get around to telling us that as of July 1, the paper will change its business model.
A full-service subscriber will get the printed paper delivered daily to home or office, access to Tallahassee.com, NoleSports.com, RattlerNews.com and affiliated websites, as well as an electronic replica edition of the paper. The price will be $14.95 a month. An online only subscription will be $9.95 a month.
Single printed copies of the paper will be available in racks and stores. One-day online access will be $2.
Web surfers will still have free access to section fronts, classifieds and shopping channels.
“In reality, more people are reading us now than ever before in print and online,” the column says. “It no longer seems fair to have only half of our readers pay for content while the other half reads for free online. This is about changing how we do business, not simply putting up a paywall on digital content.”
The latest comment posted beneath the column this morning was a vicious vilipend calling the paper’s reporting sub-par and concluding, “There is no way I would pay for this monstrosity that calls itself a newspaper, or its crappy website.”
But a comment posted a few minutes earlier read, “I can't wait for July 1st, when we don't have the volume of trolls that we have now, who are at home, whipping themselves into an onanistic frenzy when they post these obscenities. Yeah, $9.95 a month would be worth not putting up with that. :-)”
The questions for the Tallahassee Democrat are: Will the number of paid readers be adequate to offset the online advertising revenue that will be lost by fewer page views from freeloaders? Will advertisers in print and online see paying customers as a better and more valuable demographic? Will the paper’s print circulation slide slow?
It could a long, hot summer.
