The Day The Newspapers Shut Down Their Sites

[Smasher_Sloan]

The problem with that is a lot of the online readers are out of market. They can't pick up a copy of the paper. They live in San Bernadino, and they check the website for the news in their old home town.

So? Local advertisers aren't really interested in reaching people who can't shop in their stores.

The point would be that a lot of online readers aren't in the market and can't buy a paper if they wanted to. That's why they're reading online.

So if they're getting two sentences of a story and instructions to pick up the paper, it's fairly worthless to them.

 

[Frank_Ridgeway]

But who cares about them?

 

[WaylonJennings]

The problem with that is a lot of the online readers are out of market. They can't pick up a copy of the paper. They live in San Bernadino, and they check the website for the news in their old home town.

So? Local advertisers aren't really interested in reaching people who can't shop in their stores.

The point would be that a lot of online readers aren't in the market and can't buy a paper if they wanted to. That's why they're reading online.

So if they're getting two sentences of a story and instructions to pick up the paper, it's fairly worthless to them.

Sucks to be them. Not running a charity here.

Let them buy a mail subscription.

 

[Smasher_Sloan]

But who cares about them?

My guess is out of market readers hit the paper websites more than people who can actually get the paper.

 

[Smasher_Sloan]

The problem with that is a lot of the online readers are out of market. They can't pick up a copy of the paper. They live in San Bernadino, and they check the website for the news in their old home town.

So? Local advertisers aren't really interested in reaching people who can't shop in their stores.

The point would be that a lot of online readers aren't in the market and can't buy a paper if they wanted to. That's why they're reading online.

So if they're getting two sentences of a story and instructions to pick up the paper, it's fairly worthless to them.

Sucks to be them. Not running a charity here.

Let them buy a mail subscription.

Yes, that's realistic. A mail subscription. Better put on extra personnel to handle the avalanche of orders.

I'm not talking about "running a charity," but the "buy the paper" model doesn't work when you live 3,000 miles from the nearest outlet that sells the paper.

And I maintain that for a lot of papers, the majority of the online audience is not in the market.

 

[WaylonJennings]

The problem with that is a lot of the online readers are out of market. They can't pick up a copy of the paper. They live in San Bernadino, and they check the website for the news in their old home town.

So? Local advertisers aren't really interested in reaching people who can't shop in their stores.

The point would be that a lot of online readers aren't in the market and can't buy a paper if they wanted to. That's why they're reading online.

So if they're getting two sentences of a story and instructions to pick up the paper, it's fairly worthless to them.

Sucks to be them. Not running a charity here.

Let them buy a mail subscription.

Yes, that's realistic. A mail subscription. Better put on extra personnel to handle the avalanche of orders.

I'm not talking about "running a charity," but the "buy the paper" model doesn't work when you live 3,000 miles from the nearest outlet that sells the paper.

And I maintain that for a lot of papers, the majority of the online audience is not in the market.

College towns in particular.

Oh, well. Sucks for them.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Oh, well. Sucks for them.

An unacceptable attitude from any business which wants to be succesful. Unless it has a monopoly.

 

[WaylonJennings]

Oh, well. Sucks for them.

An unacceptable attitude from any business which wants to be succesful. Unless it has a monopoly.

It's not people's birth right to read an out-of-town newspaper for free.

 

[AMacIsaac]

Oh, well. Sucks for them.

An unacceptable attitude from any business which wants to be succesful. Unless it has a monopoly.

It's not people's birth right to read an out-of-town newspaper for free.

Then they should charge. Or something.

"Sucks for them" isn't the way to run a business.

You're right. 'Sucks for them' isn't a way to run a business.

But if I can be blocked from using hulu because I don't have a U.S. IP address, why not charge for story access to anyone attempting to access from outside the region's ISPs?

 

[WaylonJennings]

Let me clarify - "Sucks for them" if they aren't willing to pay.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Let me clarify - "Sucks for them" if they aren't willing to pay.

Hopefully you wouldn't say this out loud to your customers. Doesn't work too much.

 

[WaylonJennings]

Let me clarify - "Sucks for them" if they aren't willing to pay.

Hopefully you wouldn't say this out loud to your customers. Doesn't work too much.

Again, no one has a birth right to free news from their hometown paper. I didn't have it in college. I survived. If I wanted it bad enough, I'd have bought a mail subscription. If they want it bad enough, they can buy a subscription, either online or via mail. Why is this so outlandish? My tire went flat the other day. I didn't expect Tire Barn to give me a free tire.