Last week, I surfed the net in the morning. I start with the Giants Column for Andrew Baggerly, then go to the San Jose Mercury news to read more on the Giants along with some tech news. After that, I move on to read the Washington Post and USA Today.
When I arrived at the Post, it said that I have 20 free articles. If I wanted, I could subscribe to the Post for $14.99 per month. I would get a slight discount if I went on my Kindle since the price would go down to $11.99.
What I never understood was why the newspapers gave away their content on the net for no charge. They didn’t give away their print editions so why give away their internet edition. The reporters are there writing stories so it makes sense that they should be paid for their work on the internet.
Of course, it’s not always fun to read a newspaper on the internet since there are those annoying digital ads that come on. Yes, the sites have to pay the bills and make money but for the newspaper industry, this isn’t enough anymore.
It’s a hard call for me to make. I stopped Showtime and HBO and took out a subscription to Netflix. With Roku, I can watch a lot of TV shows and movies that are available on Netflix instant. I also subscribe to MLB for $89. I think Time Warner charges over $200. Then I also subscribe to the NHL and NFL rewind as well. Maybe I’ll keep NFL rewind since it’s $38 a month. I don’t think I’ll take the NHL package this year though.
Let’s face it, I want to read about the NSA, the op-ed columns, and all the world and national news. Then there are the book reviews that I enjoy. The Washington Post is a great paper for this.
If you think about it, a monthly subscription is as much as ordering a cable station. Once you start though, the chances are that the prices go up each year. Yes, the newspapers need the money and it could either be a goldmine for papers like the Post or a loss of readers on the Internet. Yes, people can still try to read the Post by having multiple alias’s but that’s a hassle since you’re getting 20 articles a month for free.
If I were to start a subscription, it means at the very least that I would have to force myself to read the paper everyday. I wasn’t doing that before since it was free. I know that I’ll have to get up earlier so I can read it before I go to work. Not a big deal to me since I don’t watch the morning shows in any case.
Of course, I have to look at the bigger picture since my job is month to month. Any job that I take outside my industry will give me a pay cut of $10,000 a year. I won’t take more than that since that will force me to move out of my home and into a smaller one with my wife. That’s of course due to my non-compete agreement which my company hides behind in their decision to make my job month to month along with the lawyers who drew up this agreement and locked me out of my industry for two years.
Decisions. Decisions. Decisions. Yes, the management of the Washington Post wants to be careful on this. Yet, consumers like me have to make these decisions on what we buy and if we could afford it. It would be nice if I could just pull the trigger but let’s face it, I have plenty of good reasons that hold me back from doing this. That’s because consumers like me want to spend money but we can’t because in my case, at least, I don’t know what the future brings.
Rick Holman
When I arrived at the Post, it said that I have 20 free articles. If I wanted, I could subscribe to the Post for $14.99 per month. I would get a slight discount if I went on my Kindle since the price would go down to $11.99.
What I never understood was why the newspapers gave away their content on the net for no charge. They didn’t give away their print editions so why give away their internet edition. The reporters are there writing stories so it makes sense that they should be paid for their work on the internet.
Of course, it’s not always fun to read a newspaper on the internet since there are those annoying digital ads that come on. Yes, the sites have to pay the bills and make money but for the newspaper industry, this isn’t enough anymore.
It’s a hard call for me to make. I stopped Showtime and HBO and took out a subscription to Netflix. With Roku, I can watch a lot of TV shows and movies that are available on Netflix instant. I also subscribe to MLB for $89. I think Time Warner charges over $200. Then I also subscribe to the NHL and NFL rewind as well. Maybe I’ll keep NFL rewind since it’s $38 a month. I don’t think I’ll take the NHL package this year though.
Let’s face it, I want to read about the NSA, the op-ed columns, and all the world and national news. Then there are the book reviews that I enjoy. The Washington Post is a great paper for this.
If you think about it, a monthly subscription is as much as ordering a cable station. Once you start though, the chances are that the prices go up each year. Yes, the newspapers need the money and it could either be a goldmine for papers like the Post or a loss of readers on the Internet. Yes, people can still try to read the Post by having multiple alias’s but that’s a hassle since you’re getting 20 articles a month for free.
If I were to start a subscription, it means at the very least that I would have to force myself to read the paper everyday. I wasn’t doing that before since it was free. I know that I’ll have to get up earlier so I can read it before I go to work. Not a big deal to me since I don’t watch the morning shows in any case.
Of course, I have to look at the bigger picture since my job is month to month. Any job that I take outside my industry will give me a pay cut of $10,000 a year. I won’t take more than that since that will force me to move out of my home and into a smaller one with my wife. That’s of course due to my non-compete agreement which my company hides behind in their decision to make my job month to month along with the lawyers who drew up this agreement and locked me out of my industry for two years.
Decisions. Decisions. Decisions. Yes, the management of the Washington Post wants to be careful on this. Yet, consumers like me have to make these decisions on what we buy and if we could afford it. It would be nice if I could just pull the trigger but let’s face it, I have plenty of good reasons that hold me back from doing this. That’s because consumers like me want to spend money but we can’t because in my case, at least, I don’t know what the future brings.
Rick Holman