Saturday, January 14, 2012

Looks like paywalls are coming to the Clarion-Ledger

Jim Romenesko published on his blog an email providing details on Gannett's plans to move its content behind a paywall:

"A reader who forwarded this Gannett document emails: “Below are some details about Gannett’s paywall. Our publisher told us we’ll be rolling one out in the coming months.”

From: xxxx
Sent: Tuesday, January 10, 2012
To: xxxxx
Subject: Consumer FAQ

Attached is the Consumer FAQ. This should be used to address questions you receive from the marketplace regarding the new subscription model. Please let me know if there are questions that come up that are not addressed in this document.

Thanks for your patience.

Mike

New Subscription Model
FAQ for Consumers

Beginning February 1, we will implement a new subscription model. Subscribers will have access to all of our content. That means you will be able to access our content where and how you want it — through all platforms, including web, mobile, smart phone, tablet and delivery of the print on the days you select.

If you choose not to subscribe, digital access will be limited to a small number of articles a month.

Why are you making this change?
Today, readers access our unique, high quality local content in a number of ways. This full access subscription model creates a structure to allow readers to choose how to read our news and information.

In conjunction with this effort, we are also investing in the unique local content we deliver across all platforms including tablet, mobile, and new technologies as they come to market.

What are the benefits of this new full access model?
Subscribers can access content anywhere and anytime using digital platforms. The content accessed through the Web, mobile, and tablet will be frequently updated and will provide coverage of breaking news and events through articles and photos as well as provide content that cannot be included in print, such as databases, streaming video, blogs and chats. The subscription pricing is aligned with content value. Unlike in the past, subscriptions remain active during vacation periods. You will be able to continue accessing the content while traveling, including viewing a digital replica of the print edition. If the subscription also includes home delivery of the newspaper, you will be credited a portion of the subscription which relates to the delivery expense for the print edition..." Rest of email and post

Gannett has NOT announced any such plans for the Clarion-Ledger BUT it doesn't take a genius to see where this is going. I can't say I have a problem with this as I thought it was a big mistake for the newspaper to give away its content for free online while it tried to make money off the increasingly obsolete model of print copy.

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

Final. Nail. in Coffin.

Anonymous said...

I said it first Gannett's Greenville News (South Carolina)did this last year. They compete with free online papers like Anderson and Spartanburg but still hold to the paid only web model. Their position is if we have one dollar more this year than last its worth it.

If the C-L numbers are bad now just wait till they put this in effect. Very few in the Jackson area will be able to afford it and fewer in the metro will join in. I love the "our high quality" comment.

TV news should take a jump.

Anonymous said...

Does this mean that as a subscriber I won't be subjected to the inane "Netflix" pop-up every time I click on a page?

Ironghost said...

Oh, this ought to be good. I sincerely hope it'll kill the CL in Jackson once and for all.

Anonymous said...

I used to read the Clarion Ledger (and Jackson Daily News, too) cover to cover every day. Today I take only the Clarion Ledger on Sundays, and sometimes don't read it. I look at the front page of the CL online on occasion, and sometimes will read a story or two. However, they can forget me ever paying to read their paper online. I predict the Clarion Ledger won't be in business two-five years from now.

Anonymous said...

Bush league paper. Haven't subscribed in years. Biased sports.

Anonymous said...

They should have done this long ago. Hopefully the content will improve once they're actually getting paid for it.

Anonymous said...

I subscribe to the Clarion Ledger 7days a week. I do not want to get it online. I have the best carrier that I have ever had. They couldn't survive putting it just on line, the ads pay for the paper.
No one is going to put all the ads on line................

Anonymous said...

Giving up the Ledger's website is like giving up eating rutabagas. You won't miss 'em.

Anonymous said...

Great idea to go to digital delivery. Good things in CL: want ads, crossword, obits and ads- none of which are content produced by editorial staff. CL has very little original content, and just about zip that's worth paying for.

LeBeau0605 said...

Obits are the only thing in the CL worth a damn!

Anonymous said...

4:44 is correct about all ads not being online. When one subscribes to e edition one does not get the Sunday supplements or comics(the best part of a CL). I wonder what it will do to their ad revenue when those who pay realize that the circulation numbers are not true as to e subscribers getting the supplements qnd inserts.

Anonymous said...

"The subscription pricing is aligned with content value."

They really think their content has value? Seriously? Well, currently we pay zero for an online subscription, and we're getting our money's worth.....

So, new thread: what will spring up to fill the local news vacuum once the C-L is gone? This here blog has more useful local content than the C-L, Fondren Bugle, and all TV stations combined (there is no radio news station a la KYW, WTOP, WBAL, WINS, etc, to compete)

Shadowfax said...

It may be all carriers or it may just be MY carrier, but for the last month at least I've gotten two bags thrown on the drive on Sunday. One contains the slimmed down newspaper and the other one, twice as large and twice as heavy and twice as much waste...contains the ads

Anonymous said...

Sunday ads no biggie all the national and regionals put them online before the Sunday paper is delivered. You might miss a local merchants ad but even some of them have seen the internet light.

Anonymous said...

Every time I see their little green bag littering my lawn, soliciting me at first light even though I have never and would never subscribe, I say a little prayer that they go out of bidness(sp?). And even though I directed these prayers to the goddess of Rhamnous, who is i think the correct deity for my purpose, I have never really believed that my prayers would be answered. I have been a faithless fool.

Anonymous said...

I'm sure 12:27 will still have to endure the "Netflix" pop-ups , along with the half page "one call that's all" ads and "the coupon chicken"...or whatever it's called.

Anonymous said...

Mostly USA Today content anyway , along with a few poorly written local articles.

Anonymous said...

"high quality". seriously?? most 6th graders have better writing skills. i got tired of paying for the paper daily and MAYBE having one actually delivered four days a week. the online updates are hours after the TV channels. bye-bye CL!

Anonymous said...

Why would anyone "pray" that the Ledger would go out of business? Really? What a bunch of small minded jerks you are.

Anonymous said...

The Clarion Ledger is nothing more than a mouthpiece of bullshit.

If you consider soundbites news, you should probably stop reading here.

bill said...

I assume that dramatic improvements to the online version are going to be implemented if the charge is going to be commensurate to the value provided. Right now the value is just about equal to the cost.

Anonymous said...

OK 12:04, you followed Leslie's orders, and KF allowed your post .

Now sweetheart,... get back to work.

Sorting through tomorrows "metro-mix"
photos has to be a young ,underpaid and probably soon to be unemployed "journalist's" worst nightmare .

Shadowfax said...

Well, 2:06, while we can all ridicule the content and format of a liberal rag, I, too, see no sane reason for wishing them to 'go out of business'. I assume their advertisements bring some degree of economic impact to those who place ads. I do know I had a gaggle of women at my house on Christmas Day rifling through the ads and heading out to spend my Christmas gifting.

I'd like to see most of the article writers either stropped or made to suffer two days in a real job, yet I don't have any desire to see the whole place go down the tubes. What would we do with all that neat iron fencing around the property in the middle of safetown?

Anonymous said...

Wow. Some really uninformed people posting here. The CL is a longtime business in Jackson that employes hundreds of people who live and shop throughout the metro area. And you hope it goes out of business? Nice.
Is it the same product it was 20 years ago, or even 10 years ago? No. Gannett, a greedy corporation run by fools, has done to the CL what it has done to its 82 other newspapers across the country: cut, cut, cut. They have done this to try and maintain the ridiculous 30-percent profit margins newspapers enjoyed in the pre-Internet days. They have also done it to afford stupid stuff like paying $37 million to Craig Dubow to "retire." He was the do-nothing CEO who in a 5-year reign of error helped the stock price go from $84 to $2 while laying off 20,000 and imposing furloughs on the remaining workers. Corporate America at its finest? Oh, yeah, On top of millions in salary and stock options each year, Dubow also received yearly cash bonuses of nearly $1 million. The reasoning by the board of directors? He had done a good job of keeping costs down! And how did he do that? By laying off people and reducing the size of the papers -- both moves that have contributed to making the CL and other Gannett papers inferior products.
While I'm on my soapbox, one last thing. After the tragic death of Bill Hunsberger, Gannett contributed to the rapid reduction in quality by making one bad hire after another with publishers, capped by the dunderhead named Larry Whitaker. If you had to deal with him at all, you know what I mean.
There are many days now when I read the CL and shake my head or even cringe, but I do not wish for it to go out of business, just as I don't wish for any other metro-area company to shut it's doors.

Anonymous said...

oh well...I only pay the $18 per month for that "newspaper" because the wife make me..she reads the obits...

Anonymous said...

I would to love know Jerry Michell's thoughts about a possible "paywall".

I bet he's as nervous as the metromix "journalists". He realizes very few will pay to read fantasy articles.

When the CL shuts down, Donna & Todd might hire him provided that he can also sell ads to F. Jones Corner,
Club Magoo's and such .

Anonymous said...

Goodbye, Clarion Legder .

Hello, Gannett-Mississippi Edition.
A paper one-half the size of the current C-L and filled with lots of retread stories from local newspapers around the state and sports stories direct from an anonymous AP writer who will have trouble disitnguishing between MSU, UM, and USM.

Anonymous said...

Jackson jambalaya: home for the uneducated and uninformed, on many levels.



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Jackson Jambalaya is the home of Trollfest '07. Catch this great event which promises to leave NE Jackson & Fondren in flames. Sonjay Poontang and his band headline the night with a special steel cage, no time limit "loser must leave town" bout between Alan Lange and "Big Cat"Donna Ladd following afterwards. Kamikaze will perform his new song F*** Bush, he's still a _____. Did I mention there was no referee? Dr. Heddy Matthias and Lori Gregory will face off in the undercard dueling with dangling participles and other um, devices. Robbie Bell will perform Her two latest songs: My Best Friends are in the Media and Mama's, Don't Let Your Babies Grow up to be George Bell. Sid Salter of The Clarion-Ledger will host "Pin the Tail on the Trial Lawyer", sponsored by State Farm.

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If you get tired come relax at the Fox News Tent. To gain admittance to the VIP section, bring either your Republican Party ID card or a Rebel Flag. Bringing both will entitle you to free drinks.Get your tickets now. Since this is an event for trolls, no ID is required, just bring the hate. Bring the family, Trollfest '07 is for EVERYONE!!!

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