goldnugget
Top Contributor
The thread about the Gaurdian going digital prompted me to put up a thread about charging for digital news stories.
Last Year the HealdSun online site changed their format from free access to all news and stories to subscription based access on many of their full detail news articles http://digitalpass.heraldsun.com.au...60x197_learnmore_v1&sourceCode=HSWEB_MPL134_b. While very brief descriptions of many articles were accessable for free, to read the full story you need to subscribe (and pay) to get access to the full story.
Now I get that they want to make money where they can and that online access to news detracts from people buying their physical paper, but I'm wondering whther by doing this they lose a fair bit of their online veiwership (and the advertising access etc that gets lost with it).
In a time when access to most of HeraldSuns stories/articles are syndicated and are available from a number of digital sources for free whether the decision to charge for access to online content and the implimentation of the system was worthwhile.
Another concern I have is during times of natural distasters (bushfires and floods) as people are trying to get access to any updated information they can, whether people are getting the most comprehensive information from the site or do they have to subscribe to do so?
Thoughts?
CHeers Jay
Last Year the HealdSun online site changed their format from free access to all news and stories to subscription based access on many of their full detail news articles http://digitalpass.heraldsun.com.au...60x197_learnmore_v1&sourceCode=HSWEB_MPL134_b. While very brief descriptions of many articles were accessable for free, to read the full story you need to subscribe (and pay) to get access to the full story.
Now I get that they want to make money where they can and that online access to news detracts from people buying their physical paper, but I'm wondering whther by doing this they lose a fair bit of their online veiwership (and the advertising access etc that gets lost with it).
In a time when access to most of HeraldSuns stories/articles are syndicated and are available from a number of digital sources for free whether the decision to charge for access to online content and the implimentation of the system was worthwhile.
Another concern I have is during times of natural distasters (bushfires and floods) as people are trying to get access to any updated information they can, whether people are getting the most comprehensive information from the site or do they have to subscribe to do so?
Thoughts?
CHeers Jay