Paying for online newspapers.

[#1]

Has anybody here been persuaded to pay for access to online newspapers?

I'm a regular reader of the online BBC news most mornings and consider it part of having paid my television licence, but I've also been a regular reader of the online Guardian newspaper - ignoring as I have been those frequent 'pop ups' asking me to become a member. Now though, every single item of their news I read comes with a hundred word [sic] footnote asking me by way of a "favour" to become a contributor.

Fair enough I suppose but given that unlike the BBC site so many come with display advertising, I'm far from being won over.

[#2]

I have no qualms about reading stuff on line. and not paying anyone ( except the ISP ) for it..... if they want people to pay for stuff, then they should put up a "front page" with some form of "log in" or access, that requires a code that proves you have paid for it.

I do understand about using stuff that is "copyright" in other applications, etc. but just reading it, and maybe digging out the odd "quote" with a ref to the source, is part of using the internet.

If they don`t want you to have it "for free", then they should not put it out there, or, as previously mentioned, provide some secure way of gaining the revenue they would like.

[#3]

If I wanted to pay for someone else's opinions, I'd be the CEO of a corporation, but, the opinionpapers (cos most of it is just that, someone's opinion on world events, rather than just saying what happened, where and why), nah, political, financial and personal bias runs through them all, I'd probably die of hypernatremia from having to take all those pinches of salt with their stories...

[#4]

Nope , but i do get a fortnightly magazine delivered , any other people still get magazines delivered ?

Regard
Mike

[#5]

For the past year I've been having the monthly MagPi magazine delivered, but only briefly flicked through them as I only subscribed because I wanted the PiZero from issue #40, giving the 11 magazines I've got (one more left to go next month) to my elder niece & nephew who are interested in programming at the moment...

[#6]

I'd pay for online newspapers provided I could pay just a couple of pence per article read via some kind of electronic wallet. If the articles are interesting the publishers would gain a suitable reward. If they are boring, i.e. football; I wouldn't want to pay.

In return there must be no adverts on the articles I've paid read.

[#7]

Some publications protect themselves with a pay wall. The Sunday Times is one but there are many more. Whilst it's nice to be able to read articles free online would you expect to go into a newsagent and pick up a newspaper or magazine without paying.

Here in the US there is a move to put more publications behind pay walls as sales of the hard copies falls off.

[#8]

Which is fine artmo but as AlaricAdair mentioned, there's the question of those adverts. Happy to accept a trade off - either free access and get those adverts, or pay and not have them.

Seems fair enough to me. 

[#9]

ITWorks

Yep, I get Private Eye, which is a sort of magazine I suppose. 

Magazine: a periodical publication containing articles and illustrations, often on a particular subject or aimed at a particular readership. 

[#10]

We still get a daily paper although I am not sure why as the online version is much more up to date.

Access to the news from various sources is free so it seems pointless to pay for it

[#11]

gleneagles

My paper of choice until recently used to be the Guardian, but at £2 for the weekday edition, £2.90 for Saturday edition and then £3 for the Sunday Observer, well that's just a bit too much for this pensioner.

Over £60 a month for something I rarely read from cover to cover? I don't think so somehow - especially since they became so over the top anti Brexit. 

[#12]

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@Minivanman wrote:

Which is fine @artmo but as @AlaricAdair mentioned, there's the question of those adverts. Happy to accept a trade off - either free access and get those adverts, or pay and not have them.

Seems fair enough to me. 

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Have you not noticed the adverts in hard copy media?

[#13]

Never pay for online content but I do buy the Telegraph most days. Purely for pleasure, the walk by the sea on the cliff tops to the shop and then the sit in the sun with the hard copy having a croisant and coffee. On the tablet it's like reading the paper through the letterbox. Lol
It's bound to change though everybody's business model is in meltdown. I laugh at the Guardian's begging letter at the bottom of their website asking them to "support them".

[#14]

Of course artmo, and it's always irritated me - but then we were presented with a three hundred year old fait accompli whereas now, we are in the age of the internet and one that gives us multiple world wide choices.

The rot had set in years ago of course when the likes of Murdoch introduced technological innovations that would put 90% of the old-fashioned typesetters out of work. Sad days and little cause for celebration, but there you have it, and how many journalists working out of Fleet Street now? None at the last count. 

[#15]

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@artmo wrote:

Some publications protect themselves with a pay wall. The Sunday Times is one but there are many more. Whilst it's nice to be able to read articles free online would you expect to go into a newsagent and pick up a newspaper or magazine without paying.

Here in the US there is a move to put more publications behind pay walls as sales of the hard copies falls off.

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Go into WHSmith in UK, and I wonder, if by the number of men I see looking for a long time at magazines etc, whether many are not doing just what you say.