Columnist quits over paywall
Its not just bloggers and readers that are having a problem with the raising of paywalls for online content. Saul Friedman is a veteran journalist that has written a column for Newsday for the last 13 years. He has quit his position as he is opposed to the $5 charge that Newsday has recently implemented for online content. He posted his position in the Poynter forum. On the same day Emap ,said it would start raising the paywall to its content and the New York Times is said to be making a decision about their online revenue model within weeks. Friedman says the reason for his departure is the inability of many people to see his content, including himself…
From SAUL FRIEDMAN: Your readers may wish to know this: After 13 years of writing “Gray Matters” for Newsday and the McClatchy Trib service, and more than 50 years in newspaper journalism, (for Knight-Ridder and Newsday), I have severed relations with Newsday and will write for Ronni Bennett’s Time Goes By.
I will write the weekly Gray Matters as well as a twice monthly essay, “Reflections.”
The main reason: The new owners of Newsday, Cablevision, have shut off access to its web site, even to me. It is available only to Newsday subscribers or to subscribers to Cablevision’s ISP. Thus I cannot send my columns to people who don’t subscribe to Newsday. And if it is picked up by Google or Yahoo, it would not be accessible.
Other paywall news today
New York Times ‘within weeks of decision’ on charging for online | Media | guardian.co.uk
Guardian | November 2, 2009
Quote: One of the longest-running guessing games for New York Times insiders and observers may be nearing an end: will the paper charge again for content online and what form would a pay programme take? Now after months of deliberation, Executive editor Bill Keller tells public editor Clark Hoyt he guesses a decision is coming “within a matter of weeks.”
Emap Will Raise The Paywall In Next Few Weeks | paidContent:UK
Hearst Digital | November 2, 2009
Quote: CEO David Gilbertson told us in an interview that all websites in the Inform division (19 business magazines including Construction News, Retail Week and Drapers) will stop giving away free news and instead start bundling web access in with subscription packages. There’s no exact timeframe, though the process has been one year in the making. Retail Week will start on November 13.
Image: Stock exchange | Wall | Rober Linder