They are charging for access to their website?
Are any other papers having success getting readers to pay on the web? I ask because with literally millions of places on the web you can get news and info for free, why would someone pay for access for one specific newspaper online? Just wondering how viable a business model that is.
Not very. The big money in newspapers is (or it was) in classified advertising. Craigslist has hollowed that out, but good. Also, other advertisers are migrating to online. There is no future in ink-on-paper, hand-delivered, day-old news.
Think clay tablets vs papyrus.
Yes, newspapers who deliver value to their customers.
Like say, oh, the Investor’s Business Daily, or the WSJ. The Financial Times out of London has had some success, I’ve read, but I don’t know their numbers like I do those of US papers.
Other papers... they don’t really deliver anything of value. What value is there in a newspaper that a) selectively reports news-worthy events, and b) puts every story into a predictable spin-machine? There’s nothing in most major US newspapers that surprises the readers with good, clear-cutting analysis any more. Everything has become a spin job for this administration and their party.
The hissy fit of the LA Times at the mere rumor that the Koch brothers might invest in the purchase of the paper is exemplary of their group-think.