Why do people balk at paying for the digital newspaper?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Publications that are heavily pay walled shouldn't be able to endlessly spam their clickbait / headlines into things like the FB news viewer. It's really that simple. I will pay for one publication. I will not pay for 15 of them.

Yep, this is my problem with newspaper paywalls. In digital form, I think many people find articles to read from social media, blogs and new aggregators. It's not like a physical paper, where you might sit down and page through the whole newspaper.

I think people are willing to pay for news, but it's going to need to work more like Spotify than traditional newspaper subscriptions.

I agree. I used to read one of two papers regularly: NYT, the Post, and the much-missed NYNewsday. Google news changed that for me. There’s no one or even three sources of news that I like and/or trust enough to want to lock myself into subscriptions. I would be willing to pay for a site that included multiple sources of news that now have paywalls: The NewYorker, the Economist, WSJ.... the many national and international papers that I might read for particular topics just a few times a year.

[Anonymous]

We have three subscriptions but I'm always a bit startled when some people don't. My boss couldn't read articles in WaPo covering our own work because he didn't have a subscription. Unbelievable. He finally got one after maybe 5 years.

[Anonymous]

I’m broke. Too many auto debits can bite me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't get a home delivery. But for some reason when I get a newspaper I read it front to back. Online is just weird to me, much prefer the physical paper.

I'm the exact opposite. The comments section is a major draw to the online newspaper. I routinely derive more from the comments than the actual article. If the Washington Post got rid of the comments, I doubt I would continue to subscribe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m broke. Too many auto debits can bite me.

Fun fact-- If you threaten to cancel most yearly subscriptions, they will lower the price as a method to keep you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Publications that are heavily pay walled shouldn't be able to endlessly spam their clickbait / headlines into things like the FB news viewer. It's really that simple. I will pay for one publication. I will not pay for 15 of them.

Yep, this is my problem with newspaper paywalls. In digital form, I think many people find articles to read from social media, blogs and new aggregators. It's not like a physical paper, where you might sit down and page through the whole newspaper.

I think people are willing to pay for news, but it's going to need to work more like Spotify than traditional newspaper subscriptions.

That would be fantastic! I currently pay for the Washington Post, New York Times (plus extra for the crossword, argh), the Atlantic, WAMU, and Popville. I gave up Slate and the Daily Beast but I miss them. I want to support everyone's work but it has to end somewhere.

WTF you pay for Popville? Whyyyyy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Publications that are heavily pay walled shouldn't be able to endlessly spam their clickbait / headlines into things like the FB news viewer. It's really that simple. I will pay for one publication. I will not pay for 15 of them.

Yep, this is my problem with newspaper paywalls. In digital form, I think many people find articles to read from social media, blogs and new aggregators. It's not like a physical paper, where you might sit down and page through the whole newspaper.

I think people are willing to pay for news, but it's going to need to work more like Spotify than traditional newspaper subscriptions.

+1 I miss a lot of the potential with the digital version because I'm not spending hours poking through the site, but will read the entire newspaper front to back if it is a hard copy.

[Anonymous]

I get home delivery of the NYT and I will spend 2-3x the time reading it versus digital. Long articles are just much better in print.

[Anonymous]

I pay for the Washington Post, NY Times, WSJ and Boston Globe. The Globe is crazy expensive compared to the others so I will probably drop that after my intro offer is done.

I am annoyed that the Times subscription excludes cooking and crosswords. I guess people are willing to pay extra for those.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m broke. Too many auto debits can bite me.

Fun fact-- If you threaten to cancel most yearly subscriptions, they will lower the price as a method to keep you.

Well, that’s a fairy dishonest approach. Especially if the concern is to keep publications open by subscribing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I pay for the Washington Post, NY Times, WSJ and Boston Globe. The Globe is crazy expensive compared to the others so I will probably drop that after my intro offer is done.

I am annoyed that the Times subscription excludes cooking and crosswords. I guess people are willing to pay extra for those.

+1 The extra for the NYT Food section annoys me and I don't pay for that. I subscribe to the Post, NY Times and donate to NPR/WAMU.