Newspaper Publishers: Don’t Make a Bad Situation Worse, Part 1
This is a troubling trend. Very often I'm presented with an interesting article from one of my RSS newsfeeds and I'm requested to register or purchase a subscription. This isn't just happening the the States. Here is Canada the National Post and other CanWest papers are starting to go that route as well. My personal reaction is to read another paper online, and thus see the advertisements offered there and not at the paper which restricts access to subscribers or offers only partial content online for free.
Newspaper Publishers: Don't Make a Bad Situation Worse, Part 1: “Some industries just can't get out of their own way.
I've been close to the newspaper industry for a long time. I got my start in this industry selling online newspapers ads, back in the early '90s. I've developed and sold ad servers. I currently count many newspapers among my company's customers.
Over the years, I've stayed in the loop on some internal developments within a few of the larger U.S. newspaper companies. I'm respectful of my access, but some of what I hear lately has me very worried.
They're about to shoot themselves in the foot… again.”