Common sense Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 With increasing economic pressure on media and the rising cost of gathering information, non-print subscribers who want unlimited access to The Vancouver Sun content online will now pay a nominal fee. A growing number of major newspapers around the world, including the New York Times and London’s Times and Guardian, have adopted pay models for digital content. Today, The Sun follows suit. This new “metered” system will help generate revenue to invest in the insightful, award-winning print and digital journalism expected from the biggest and best news team in Western Canada. We remain committed to investigative reporting and working to ensure transparency from governments and public agencies. All our print subscribers will receive free, unlimited access to vancouversun.com and The Vancouver Sun’s mobile apps, included with delivery of their daily newspaper. Once registered, our customers can enjoy all digital content from any computer or mobile device, and join online conversations with journalists and other readers on a range of topics. For readers who want a digital-only subscription, we are pleased to offer an introductory rate of just 99 cents for the first month. This provides unlimited access to vancouversun.com and Vancouver Sun apps from any smartphone or tablet. You, our readers, will continue to receive all the news, analysis, features, videos, photo galleries and other content from your favourite Sun journalists, as well as from other local, national and international sources. Non-subscribers can still read our breaking news online, as well as up to 15 free articles every 30 days. An automatic message will appear on your screen when you have five free articles remaining, inviting you to subscribe. For more information about the digital access system, go to vancouversun.com/subscribe. It is my hope vancouversun.com will continue to be a meeting place for readers to exchange ideas and participate in conversations aimed at making our community a better place. This year we celebrate the 100th anniversary of The Vancouver Sun with more people reading us than ever before — thanks to our digital platforms. About 1.7 million unique visitors read our website each month. Others access us on smartphones and tablets and, across all platforms, we generated more than 43 million page views in July alone. We trust you will want to be a part of this, and continue to recognize the value provided in the breadth of in-depth journalism, local news and features found only in the pages of The Sun. Harold Munro Editor in Chief http://www.vancouver...l#ixzz24D6GIco7 The Internet has radically changed the way we do business at The Province. Instead of working toward a few print deadlines a day our reporters and editors now aim to serve readers anytime and anyplace through our website, tablet or smartphone apps. We’ve enhanced our print offerings online with videos, podcasts and photo galleries. We host regular online chats. We encourage our readers to become part of the conversation through social media and by joining the debate under our stories. Providing our journalism online has brought us bigger audiences. The latest Nadbank survey found The Province now reaches 912,300 people every week either through print or online. Print subscribers have always paid for our content. But until now, our online offerings have been free. The truth is, good journalism isn’t free and we need to find a new business model to help pay for it. At The Province, we invest heavily in the excellent work our reporters, photographers, editors and columnists do each day. Good journalism makes a difference to our communities. It spurs debate and sometimes leads to needed changes in government policies. In-depth projects such as Operation Phoenix and Boomerangst, which have won National Newspaper Awards and Jack Webster Awards in recent years, take months of hard work by many people. Our sports coverage is renowned. Our print subscribers will continue to be able to read all our work in print, on our website, on their tablets and smartphones. But starting today, we will be offering digital subscriptions for those who prefer to get their news online. We are introducing a metered model, which means readers will be asked to pay after reading 15 articles over a 30-day period. Access to our website’s home page and breaking news will continue to be free as will access to our extensive selection of blogs. We are not the first newspaper to do this, and we won’t be the last. The Montreal Gazette and Times Colonist moved to a metered model last year. The Globe and Mail has announced it will begin to charge for digital content in the fall. Papers in Britain, along with The New York Times and Wall Street Journal are already charging for online content. Here’s how our new “metered” model will work: Print subscribers will have free unlimited access to all digital content. They will simply need to register for it. Casual website users will continue to get breaking news free of charge. Visits to the home page will also continue to be free. Viewing full articles, photo galleries, videos and other features will count toward the monthly limit of free articles. The cost of getting unlimited digital access through our website, tablet and phone apps will be 99 cents for the first 30 days. After that it will be $7.95 plus tax a month. And finally, if you are a subscriber to the electronic replica of the daily newspaper, please note it will now be called our e-paper instead of digital edition. We hope to continue serving you with our award-winning journalism whether you read us in print, on the web, through your tablet or your phone. Answers to your questions about this can be found at theprovince.com/subscribe. http://www.theprovin...l#ixzz24DBENN2N Bummer...they were usually half-decent for sports stories and whatnot, I guess such is the way of the newspaper world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tearloch7 Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 Seems to be the reality these days .. most people get their "news fix" via some app or from the Daily Show .. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharpshooter Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 Why not just increase the advertising revenue by requiring mandatory viewing of ads and keep the content free for readers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Everybody Hates Raymond Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goalie13 Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 Agreed. The more online readers they have, the more they can charge for online advertising. Instead, they are chasing online readers away. The Times Colonist moved to the pay model a while back. I still visit the site to get the headlines, but once my 20 free stories per month are up (apparently it will be 15 for the Province and Sun), that's it. I pick and choose what articles I read too. So many of the articles on any of these sites are actually taken from somewhere else anyways. I save my free 20 stories for local content. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronthecivil Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 Why not just increase the advertising revenue by requiring mandatory viewing of ads and keep the content free for readers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobble Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 I read most of my interesting articles from this forum or non-media websites. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aladeen Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 Wow with the abundance of online news choices I would have thought they would always keep their digital papers free. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hockeyville88 Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 There is a LOT of stuff available online for free right now. But my theory is, enjoy it while we can because pretty soon it'll be a thing of the past Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AfterMath35 Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 Agreed. The more online readers they have, the more they can charge for online advertising. Instead, they are chasing online readers away. The Times Colonist moved to the pay model a while back. I still visit the site to get the headlines, but once my 20 free stories per month are up (apparently it will be 15 for the Province and Sun), that's it. I pick and choose what articles I read too. So many of the articles on any of these sites are actually taken from somewhere else anyways. I save my free 20 stories for local content. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TOMapleLaughs Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 What i'm reading is that overall readership is down and declining, and they're desperate to boost enough revenue to stay afloat in an over-saturated media market. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BurnabyJoe Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 I'll buck up for this. The Vancouver Sun is a great read. The newspaper (in whichever format) is still the greatest place to get news (papers like the Province not withstanding ). If you're afraid of big words and long articles, and not knowing something the second it happens, continue to get your news via msn, twitter, facebook etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-SN- Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 Paywalls work for large publications like The New York times and Wall Street Journal because they have a large quantity of quality content. The math doesn't work for small local newspapers like the Province or the Sun, people will just move to free and more convenient alternatives. You can usually bypass the paywall anyway by clearing cookies, using a different browser, or following a link to an article. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donky Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 There is a LOT of stuff available online for free right now. But my theory is, enjoy it while we can because pretty soon it'll be a thing of the past Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Common sense Posted August 22, 2012 Author Share Posted August 22, 2012 I'll buck up for this. The Vancouver Sun is a great read. The newspaper (in whichever format) is still the greatest place to get news (papers like the Province not withstanding ). If you're afraid of big words and long articles, and not knowing something the second it happens, continue to get your news via msn, twitter, facebook etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tearloch7 Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 If I want big words and long articles for Canada, there's always National Post, CBC.ca, and TGAM; If I want it for the US, there's anything from CNN to FOXNews.com. If I want to know something the second it happens, I don't know why you're looking to a newspaper site - go social and look for Twitter. AFAIK, any paywall can be bypassed if you look hard enough at the alternates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Common sense Posted August 22, 2012 Author Share Posted August 22, 2012 I stopped myself reading any further when you included FOXNews as a "news" broadcast .. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woot Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 I stopped myself reading any further when you included FOXNews as a "news" broadcast .. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sugar baby watermelon Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 the only interesting things to read from both papers are the sports and comics section. I enjoy reading the Pass it to Bulis blogs though so I may have to ante up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nucklehead Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 I can still read it for free at the library right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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