how the failing newspaper industry shot itself in the foot..

[jamese1045]

Forget the comics? FORGET THE COMICS???
What are you, some kind of neanderthal?
There's no other reason to buy the paper any more. And it's also why I never bother with the NYT. If you ain't got comics, you ain't worth bothering with!

:lol:

Right on!

[guru]

Re:

An interesting column on this in today's NY Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/13/busin ... 3carr.html

Faced with an ad market that no longer supplies enough revenue to meet costs, many newspapers are now considering putting up pay walls on their Web sites, long an anathema in Internet culture. Consumers used to roaming freely across the Web in search of news and opinion may soon find themselves being asked to register at news sites and, in some cases, to fork over a credit card number.

Well, today Gannett rolled out their online subscription structure for all their newspapers - except USA Today - which included my local Cincinnati Enquirer. In short, non-subscribers get 20 article views a month before they're shut out.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/2012 ... ur-readers

Of course, I had my plan - use a VPN that issues a new IP addy every time you log in. Except that didn't work. I couldn't figure out why, until it hit me. No, it couldn't be so simple as a cookie, could it? A cookie that, when dumped, would reset the counter?

Yep...

[Daisy]

Re: how the failing newspaper industry shot itself in the fo

So the obvious next step will be no complimentary editorials and op-eds etc.

[guru]

Re: how the failing newspaper industry shot itself in the fo

It's laughable really. I use Chrome for my browser, and all I have to do is browse the Enquirer website in Incognito mode, and when I close the window it automatically dumps all cookies I've picked up for that session. Voila! Next visit to the newspapers website my counter is back at zero page views. Did they not think people would figure out it was a cookie?

[tandfman]

Re: how the failing newspaper industry shot itself in the fo

Did they not think people would figure out it was a cookie?

And do you think that they won't figure out that people are figuring it out and then figure out a way to stop people from doing what you're doing?

[j-a-m]

Re: Re:

In short, non-subscribers get 20 article views a month before they're shut out.

That specific business model is bound to fail. Either they count it in a way that's easy to get around, as it seems to be the case here; or they make it more difficult to get around, in which case it raises more privacy concerns.

Instead, they could easily separate content between subcriber and non-subscriber; or they could generally show non-subscribers the first couple paragraphs, and subscribers the whole article.

[j-a-m]

Re: how the failing newspaper industry shot itself in the fo

And do you think that they won't figure out that people are figuring it out and then figure out a way to stop people from doing what you're doing?

They could use more sophisticated cookies, could log your IP address, or do something similar. One way or the other, it would raise additional privacy concerns.

[guru]

Re: how the failing newspaper industry shot itself in the fo

And do you think that they won't figure out that people are figuring it out and then figure out a way to stop people from doing what you're doing?

They could use more sophisticated cookies, could log your IP address, or do something similar. One way or the other, it would raise additional privacy concerns.

Any cookie can be dumped, and an IP logger(which I too thought they would use) is easily beaten by a VPN like Hotspot Shield

[j-a-m]

Re: how the failing newspaper industry shot itself in the fo

Any cookie can be dumped, and an IP logger(which I too thought they would use) is easily beaten by a VPN like Hotspot Shield

So let's say a store in your hometown puts a tracking device into your pocket every time you enter the store, and they also write down your licence plate number.

You fine with that? After all, you could easily take the tracking device out of your pocket and dump it, and you could walk there instead of using your car.

[guru]

Re: how the failing newspaper industry shot itself in the fo

99.9% of websites do one or both of those things anyway(unless blocked)

[Marlow]

Re: Re:

Well, today Gannett rolled out their online subscription structure for all their newspapers - except USA Today

I only have the on-line USA Today subscription. I'm dumping my print SI and Time subs for the iPad the school just gave us all. T&FN MUST stay as print or how else can I prove my über-geekdom, by showing off my yards and yards of T&F-related bookshelf material?

[guru]

Re: Re:

Well, today Gannett rolled out their online subscription structure for all their newspapers - except USA Today

I only have the on-line USA Today subscription.

That's fine, but my pojnt was for whatever reason Gannett is not using the(laughable) non-subscriber page view limiter cookie with USA Today

[Conor Dary]

Re: how the failing newspaper industry shot itself in the fo

People actually read USA Today every day? The only time I look at it is when it is outside the door on the floor in the morning at a hotel.

And I have never been to their web site so anyone is welcome to my 20 visits.

[Marlow]

Re: Re:

Well, today Gannett rolled out their online subscription structure for all their newspapers - except USA Today

I only have the on-line USA Today subscription.

That's fine, but my pojnt was for whatever reason Gannett is not using the(laughable) non-subscriber page view limiter cookie with USA Today

Oh, your Digital IQ (acronym: DIQ :P ) is waaaay higher than mine!!!

[Marlow]

Re: how the failing newspaper industry shot itself in the fo

People actually read USA Today every day? The only time I look at it is when it is outside the door on the floor in the morning at a hotel.

I value Cultural (sic) Literacy (it's actually a requisite of my job) and USAT covers that better and more succinctly than anyone else. Time is a close second.